Spring Time in the Fox Den
by Shi no Tenshi 902
Summary: Kyuubi attacks, yet the Yondaime doesn't die nor is the Kyuubi sealed within Naruto. Instead Jiraiya stops Arashi from sealing the fox demon within his son, yet after that everything gets complicated. Oh and Obito is alive. Yaoi. SasuNaru.
1. The Beginning

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto and never will. Life sucks then you die, so live with it.

* * *

The village was destroyed.

The once tall and proud buildings were now set ablaze, crumbling to the ground. The buildings that still stood waited for the effects of gravity to pull their weakened structures toppling down into the debris-ridden streets and onto the tall and proud people that once resided within them. Many of those people were screaming and scrambling about, some trying desperately to rescue those that were unconscious or trapped beneath the fallen buildings, while most only tried to save themselves and their family.

Running past the chaos of the burning buildings and blocking out the sounds of the peoples terrified screams, a blond haired, blue eyed man tightened his hold on the small bundle in his arms. All other things did not seem to matter to him as he ran through the village—even though somewhere in the back of his mind he worried for the people around him, the only thing that seemed to matter was the bundle he cradled in his arms, and the raging fox demon that was destroying the forest just outside of the village. The closer the blond came to the fox demon, the tighter he gripped onto the bundle in his arms. Nevertheless, no matter how tight he held the bundle, he made sure that no harm came to the infant inside.

While the man ran, the baby in his arms stayed surprisingly quiet for a baby not even an hour old. The blond haired, blue eyed baby—a mini replica of the young man in his early twenties holding him so protectively—seemed to be unnaturally wise for an infant such as himself; something that went unnoticed from the chaos going on. The small baby just looked out into the world with a small smile on his tiny lips, innocence shining in uniquely-colored blue eyes. Eyes that shone with understanding, an understanding as if the infant already knew its fate of being the container of the demon fox that stood raging on just up ahead of him.

Soon the man carrying the tiny bundle stopped and started to perform hand seals, with much difficulty since he was holing the baby. When he finished, a giant toad appeared beneath his feet, lifting him and the baby up into impossible heights in the sky. The blond man asked the giant toad to get as close as possible to the equally giant fox, but far enough away from it to stay out of the fox demon's attacking range. As the toad did what was asked of it and got close enough to the fox demon, the older blond gently laid the newly born blond on top of the toad's head and started to form another set of hand seals.

This set of hand seals was much longer than the first, and much more complicated. While the blond man made the hand seals, a dark, shadowy figure started to form behind him, and slowly gained a solid and clearer shape with each seal that was made. Right as the second-to-last seal was casted, a yell distracted the blond man, causing him to lose his concentration and the almost-solid figure behind him to disappear in an instant.

"_MINATO!_ Stop this madness at once!" The voice yelled at the blond man once more. Turning around, the blond man, Minato, came face to face with a white haired old man.

"Jiraiya-sensei," Minato greeted nonchalantly. "What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here? _What am I doing here?_" the white haired man, Jiraiya, asked as he all but strangled his student. "What the _hell_ do you _think_ I'm here for? I'm here to stop you form making the biggest mistake of your life!"

"Jiraiya," Minato said, showing just how serious he was by not adding 'sensei' to the end of his old teacher's name for the first time ever. "I _have _to do this; to save my village, my precious people, _my son!_"

"You won't be saving him, but condemning him to a life of misery if you go through with this!" the Toad Sannin yelled. During the time the two continued to fight over the matter, the baby started to squirm around in the blanket he was wrapped in before freeing himself of its hold. The baby started to squirm about even more until he was on his hands and knees and did something no new-born baby should be able to do. The baby boy started to crawl, and did not seem to be afraid of the incredible height of what he was crawling at as he got closer to the edge of giant toad's head.

Soon the incline of the toad's head became too much for the baby to continue to crawl on without slipping and he started to slide, right off of the giant toad's head until he was in a free-fall. To him, the fall was a thrilling ride and he had no reason to be screaming from the imminent death about to befall him. No, instead, he was giggling every time his soft blond hair tickled his body and having fun. Just as the baby was about to meet the ground, and what was most likely his death, a giant, wet, slimy tongue surrounded his small form, cushioning him and halting his descent.

Setting the new-born down on the ground to make sure he could not try the same thing again, the toad, Gama-bunto, tried to get the two grown men's attention. Key word _tried_, because the two were too busy bickering on top of his head.

As Gama-bunto tried even harder to get the people riding on his heads attention, the baby continued with his adventure. Crawling forward, he continued on without a care in the world. The more he crawled, the farther away he got from Gama-bunto and the others, and the more frantic Gama-bunto became. Finally the baby stopped crawling and sat down, right in front of the raging fox demon's front left paw.

"**IDIOTS!**" Gama-bunto screamed, finally gaining the others attention.

"**WHAT?**" the two screamed at Gama-bunto, still angry from their earlier _debate_.

"So happy you finally decided to listen to me, and Minato, may I point out that _your_ **son** is about to be crushed by the giant fox demon over there?" the toad said sarcastically.

"_WHAT?_" Minato yelled frantically, almost giving himself whiplash as he jerked his head towards the nine-tailed fox demon and his son sitting right in front of it. By then the fox had lifted its leg right above the baby's head and was ready to crush the infant. "_NOOOO—_" screamed the boy's frantic father as he saw his son about to be killed. Leaping from atop the giant toad's head, he landed on the ground but was still much too far away. He reached out his hand as if to grasp his son from across the great distance and pull him out of harms way, but it was too late.

The nine-tailed fox demon's paw came crashing down on the infant.

The fox seemed to freeze up just when its paw struck the infant, and the whole clearing went silent as if to grieve the infant's death that came all too soon.

The fox then let out a howl that sounded like it was mourning for the infant's death as well, and as the howl rang out through the entire area, a fire began to burn around the fox.

If anyone asked what happened after that or where the fire came from, no one could say. The only thing that anyone could remember was that the fire consumed the fox, and when it died down the fox was gone, but not without a child's giggling that seemed to ring throughout the clearing, and was heard by all present.

The Yondaime Hokage of Konoha, after the fox disappeared, fell to his knees in front of Gama-bunto, in shock and sadness, looking for any sign of his son's body. None was found.

Unnoticed to the two men and the giant toad, three others had arrived in time to see the fateful event. One of them began to make his way towards the blond, but a second male laid his hand on his shoulder and shook his head.

"He needs to be alone, Obito," the one who stopped the first from going told his teammate.

"But I just want to help him. You know what I mean, right Kakashi?" Obito asked.

"We all do, Obito," Rin said softly, watching her sensei grieve over his lost son. "We all do."

* * *

It was an idea that just wanted to come out of my head, so I let it. Not sure if I'm going to do pairings in this story or not, but if I do, be warned that it will be yaoi...for the most part.

Edited 6/1/2010

Guess what? Well, this story is offically being edited/has been edited by 

Shi no Tenshi


	2. Fox, Rice, & a Whole Lot More

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, so live with it.

* * *

Without warning, a giant flame burst to life in the middle of a vast forest. Unfortunately, no one was around to see this unnatural and once-in-a-lifetime happening.

No one was around when the flame died away to reveal a giant nine-tailed red fox with its left foot hovering less then a foot above the ground, nor was anyone around to see the giant fox move its paw away from where it was about to step and reveal a baby. A tiny little baby with a tussle of blond hair and the brightest of sky blue eyes that held wisdom beyond the baby's years, and clutched inside the baby's little fist was a silver shuriken with a purple tint to it. A shuriken that was, just a short while ago, embedded in the fox's front left paw.

The fox lifted its giant paw up to its face and examined its paw thoroughly. Feeling no more pain coming from its paw, the fox looked at the baby boy, with its head cocked to the side in curiosity. The baby had dropped the shuriken and was now looking at the fox, just like how the fox was looking at him, before erupting into a fit of baby giggling with a smile on his tiny little face. The fox then let out a growl and lowered its head down to the infant's level. Looking the baby in the eye, the infant giggled even more as the fox's soft breathing rustled his blond hair. The fox blinked in confusion at the baby's antics before opening its mouth, baring its sharp fangs, and licked the infant.

The baby's whole body was encased in the wet tongue of the fox causing him to giggle even more. Yet again, a burst of flames surrounded the fox and this time when they disappeared the fox was still there but smaller, much smaller. The fox was now the size of a new born puppy and its nine tails were now gone, leaving in their wake one fluffy tail. Gone was the demonic looking image of a demon fox, leaving behind an average looking fox kit. The—now chibi—fox still had its unusual blood-red fur coat, but it seemed much more pleasant looking, and its once blood-red eyes were now an innocent looking gold color. The chibi fox then jumped into the infant's lap, and started to lick him mercilessly.

"Well there you are Chibi Kitsune," a strong, male voice called out. "Sister Dear, I've found Chibi Kitsune and it looks like he made a new friend, too!"

"I see that Dear Brother," a female voice, that could only be described as unearthly, responded to the male. Once the chibi fox heard the two voices, he stopped licking the infant and looked over his shoulder to see two figures making their way towards them.

The first—the male—was tall, very tall, standing around seven feet tall with a light tan. He had dark orange hair—almost the color of a fox's fur coat in spring time, yet a little darker—and piercing, dark, golden eyes. He wore a beautiful red kimono with black sakura-petal designs on it, a black obi, and, oddly enough, the male was carrying a sack of rice with him. Well at least that is what the brown sack with the kanji for rice written on it said. All in all, the man looked divine.

Next to the man stood an equally divine woman; she was as tall as her brother, if not an inch or two shorter than him, with a dark tan. She had long slivery-orange locks of hair with some darker orange streaks scattered throughout, and her eyes were a bright, light color of liquid gold. The woman wore a kimono the exact opposite of her brother's; in other words, what was red was now black and what was black was now red. She too carried a sack of rice, and prancing around the two's feet were four fully grown, pure white foxes with eyes of the softest brown.

Walking over to the infant and the little fox, the man gently picked up the small kitsune, while the woman picked up the infant and held him gently in her arms.

"And what is your name, Chibi One?" the woman cooed. The baby looked at the woman curiously and made several small baby noises, while moving his tiny fists around.

"You are very wise for one so young, Chibi One," the man said, with a bit of surprise in his voice, speaking to the infant like he could understand his words. "And you are correct; we are Gods. I am the God Inari, God of Rice and Foxes, and my sister—also named Inari—is the Goddess of Food, Fertility, and Foxes."

"And it would seem, Dear Brother, that this Chibi One saved one of our foxes from a nasty fate," the Goddess Inari said.

"Why do you say that, Sister Dear?" the God Inari asked. Balancing the infant with one hand, the goddess pointed to the purple tinted silver shuriken on the ground that suddenly disappeared and reappeared in her, now palm up, hand. Tossing the shuriken to her brother, the god caught it with ease while he held the little kittling with only one hand. Studying the shuriken, the divine man's face turned dark and forbidding looking crossed his divine features.

"That damn demented snake!" he growled out fox-like. "He tried to poison Chibi Kitsune!"

"Calm down Dear Brother!" the goddess yelped when she saw that a red aura had surrounded him and started to lash out all around him, showing his rage. Yet her brother did not heed her advice and his aura continued to lash out around him. The fox tucked in between his body and left arm, started to shiver and whimper in fear. The infant, seeming to understand the god's rage and wanting to calm him down for sake of his new little fox friend, reached his tiny little hand out to him. A white aura surrounded the infant and swirled around the goddess and him before a flare of his aura broke off and started to circle the god. A gasp was heard from both divine beings and the god's aura and rage diminished to nothing.

"Sister Dear, are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Inari asked shocked, unlike a god or goddess would ever act in front of a mortal.

"Pure One… he's a Pure One!" his sister stated at first in disbelief, then shouted in excitement.

A Pure One was a rarity in a rarity; they were mortals that were born with a kind of knowledge and understanding about the world around them and were, for a lack of a better word, pure in heart, mind, soul, and spirit. They were innocent beings that affected everyone they came in contacted with in one way or another, and had a power that could only be described as pure, hence the name Pure One.

However, they were easily tainted and manipulated at young ages. The gods usually were always on guard and looking out for Pure Ones, because they could not mingle with mortals and help them all the time. It was against the rules, but they could look after one chosen mortal once every millennium and the best choice was a Pure One. Through their chosen mortal, they could guide and be a big influence on their lives and the people around them. Pure Ones usually had more influences on the people around them and what was the out come of things, since they became strong influences on their home villages and some times across the whole shinobi world, usually making all gods want them for their Chosen One.

Yet the gods could not be around their Chosen Ones all the time, it was against the rules as well for the fact that they still had responsibilities to take care of. They could contact them directly, without hiding who they were and tricking people into doing their biding. They did not even have to hide from their sight, as they did when they were talking to miko, monks, and priests that asked them for guidance, as they talked to them or even given them riddles so they had to figure it out for themselves. They could just appear before them and talk to them as if they were humans as well. It was as if the gods were just raising their own child, giving them advice when they needed it and scolding them when they did wrong—something that kept a lot of gods and goddesses from going insane because of their immortality.

"Sister Dear, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" the god asked with a foxy grin on his face.

"Only if you're thinking that it's been over a millennium since our last Chosen One," the goddess said with the same grin on her face. "And I already have in mind the perfect familiar for our new Chosen One, our Chibi One."

"Don't get too ahead of yourself Sister Dear," her brother warned her, "Chibi One has to say yes to our offer first, as is custom."

"Would you like to be our Chosen One, Chibi One?" the twin divine beings asked together looking at the baby, who had been silent throughout their whole conversation. The infant started to 'talk' in his jabberwocky-like baby language, while moving his hands back and forth. The two divine beings nodded their heads every once in awhile and when he was finished the two looked at each other surprisingly.

"You're sure about this? You might not ever see your father again? If not, then for a very long time. Are you still sure about this?" the Goddess Inari asked. The baby just nodded his little head and smiled a sad smile, knowing that his father could live on without him and that he would be doing a lot of good this way; making his father very proud of him, even if he did not know he was his son.

"Then we choose you as our new Chosen One," the divine twins said together and began the ritual, naming the infant their new Chosen One.

* * *

Two days later, outside of Konohagakure's ruined wall that was well under way of construction, a well-known retired ANBU shinobi had just woken up by the sun in her dull violet eyes. She was in her late sixties, something not common for a shinobi since they were expected to die young, and looked like someone's grandmother. Her peppered white hair was held up by two senbon in a bun and she dressed in an old worn Jounin outfit, after she had got up out of bed. Going outside of her rundown log cabin, the old shinobi greeted the new day, as was her morning routine.

She was not expecting to see a little bundle of white on her porch. The old ANBU carefully made her way to the bundle and looked around for any traps or someone who was playing a trick on her old bones. When she saw nothing, the ex-ANBU carefully picked up and unraveled the buddle. Upon seeing what was inside the bundle, a gasp escaped her lips. There, a baby boy, with blond hair and three whisker-like marks on each oh his round little cheeks, lay fast asleep with an arm hooked around a fox, no bigger than a puppy, and thumb in his mouth. The picture was too adorable for words.

Looking around for anyone, the elder woman could not find anything. Looking back at the infant, she felt a small tug at her heart and smiled for the first time since her granddaughter and the rest of her family died. That was when she first noticed a small stitched name in the blanket the baby was wrapped up in. Shifting the infant in her arms, while moving the blanket, the woman tried to get a better view of what it was. There, embroidered in orange, was the name _Naruto_.

"Well Naruto, I'm Hoshi, Uzumaki Hoshi, your new Grandma," she told the infant, a new spark of life in her old eyes that did not look too dull anymore. Taking the baby inside to find him something to eat and take care of the infant, the ex-ANBU shinobi failed to notice a white fox watching her and the bundle with piercing brown eyes before it trotted off into the forest, disappearing completely like a spirit would.

* * *

Well, since I had another writers block for **_Another World_**, I decided to get the next chapter of this out, which came out total different than what I imagined in my mind, but it's so much better.

Oh, and the whisker marks are because of the ritual of naming Naruto as the Inaris' choosen one.

So here you go, hope you liked it.

Edited by **** 6/1/2010

Shi no Tenshi


	3. Uzumaki Hoshi

Gomen-nasai for the wait... school is a killer and my laptop battery is dieing -shortening the time I can work on my stories- and I have yet to get a new one. But I hope this makes up for the lateness.

* * *

"Grandma, am I a demon?" a small boy with blond hair asked, carrying his faithful pet fox in his arms while he walked by Hoshi's side. Startled by his question, Hoshi stopped walking, causing her grandson to stop as well. Looking down at the small child of three, Hoshi truly studied the boy for the first time since she had taken in the small baby that she found on her doorstep only a few short years ago.

The boy was short, about three feet tall, and was a little round with baby fat and had sort of girlish-looking features. Slightly tanned skin matched with his sun-kissed unruly blond hair that went every which way. Wide, innocent sky-blue eyes looked into her own war-torn-tainted violet eyes. Three whisker-like marks on either side of the child's face even furthered to bring out the blonde's blue eyes and in a way made him look demonic-like. He wore a pair of bright orange shorts with a matching vest over a white shirt that seemed to be too large for him, and a pair of little black ninja sandals covered his feet from the twigs and rocks of the path they walked on.

Though around the little child there was an aura that was calming and gentle and innocent, at the same time it held an air of wisdom only the oldest and wisest of shinobi had after many battles and wars fought. Even stranger about the small blond was that he was already talking full sentences without a single word mispronounced since the age of two, and he had been able to walk only a few days after she found the little tyke. The small child had also taken up disappearing into the forest with his kitsune in tow everyday. Then there was the whole kitsune thing.

In all the years that she had taken care of Naruto and the little kitsune, the kittling was always by his side or not that far away from him and it hadn't aged any, which scared Hoshi at first but since the kittling had done no harm to anything she got used to it. Then when Naruto was old enough to talk he had promptly named his little kitsune friend Kyuubi, which was a problem in itself because the fox demon that had attacked Konohagakure turned out to be the Kyuubi no Kitsune. When the villagers had found this out they had begun to believe that Naruto was the soul of the Kyuubi no Kitsune reborn as a human and that it wished to finish what it started. The whisker marks he had didn't help at all and so he was shunned and hated by the people of Konoha. When Hoshi tried to make things better for her grandson and asked him to change his kitsune's name, he refused and when she asked why he just said; "because Kyuubi is Kyuubi."

"No, you're not a demon," Hoshi said, kneeling down to his eye level, ignoring her joints creaking in protest, and looked him in the eyes as she spoke so he knew she wasn't lying to him. The little boy grinned, a grin that could only be described as fox-like, causing Hoshi to grin as well and ruffle up his already messy hair. "What brings this sudden question on?"

The little boy shifted nervously on his feet and diverted his eyes away from hers. The little fox in his arms squirmed around at the question just like his owner and laid his ears flat against his skull. Hoshi's eyes narrowed; she knew whenever Naruto was nervous he wouldn't look at anyone straight in the eyes and Kyuubi would act just as uncomfortable as his owner, something that worked in favor to Hoshi. However, for the life of her, she could never figure out how the little fox seemed to know and reacted the same way as his owner did, but just chalked it up to be something to do with them being raised together.

"Naruto," the old ANBU said in a stern voice that demanded respect and no one would deny her of it, not even Naruto.

"Some boys from the village found me in the forest and started to call me a demon and other such names," Naruto said in a small voice like it was his fault that they were being mean to him and not their fault. All the while his eyes were staring interestedly at a spot on Kyuubi's fur coat. Even with his confession, Hoshi felt as if he was leaving something out and voiced her opinion on the matter.

"They didn't just call you names, did they?" the ex-ANBU side still in control of the situation. When he didn't answer, Hoshi's eyes soften and her grandmother side took over. "They hit you, didn't they?"

Again she was met with silence. Though that was all she needed to know that her assumptions were true. However, they were proven even truer when Naruto shifted uncomfortably from one leg to the other, Hoshi's well trained eyes catching a milliseconds worth of a glimpse of a bluish-black patch of skin on Naruto's left leg before it was recovered by his shorts. At that very second Hoshi made plans to leave the village and let Naruto grow up normally without having anymore hatred, loathing, or disgust thrown his way.

Ruffling his hair once again to show him that she wasn't mad at him, Hoshi stood up and the little family continued their way on their walk. The two continued their walk without anymore trouble and had a nice enjoyable talk. As they made their way back to their home outside of Konoha's gates, Hoshi pointed at different things, having Naruto tell her what he knew about them and her correcting mistakes he made, which were very few.

Once they had arrived back home, the elder lady sent Naruto off to play as she wrote a letter. Attaching it to a messenger bird and watching the bird leave her sight of vision, Hoshi made preparations. Grabbing a scroll, she began to write down a simple D-rank mission that she would have some genin do in order for her to get ready to leave the village faster. Finishing the details for the mission, Hoshi grabbed some money and went to find Naruto.

The little blond boy was in the kitchen happily munching on some jerky as he shared it with his little fox shadow. Watching the child happily eat his snack without noticing her, Hoshi pondered how such a small child could take everything thrown at him that a full grown adult couldn't even bare and still be so innocent and not become tainted. It was just another mystery to add to one Uzumaki Naruto.

"So that's where all my jerky has been going, a thieving Chibi Tenshi and his kitsune have been eating it all," Hoshi said in a stern voice even though she was joking, startling the little blond and kitsune. The two jumped slightly and turned to face her, though when they saw that she was smiling, they knew she was joking with them.

"But I was hungry," Naruto said defending himself in good nature even though he knew she was teasing him and Kyuubi yelped his agreement. The ex-ANBU just smiled and scooped Naruto up into her arms before kissing him on his forehead. Naruto made a funny face before he held up the jerky he had been chewing on as an offering as an apology.

"Oh, so now I get a half eaten piece of jerky as an apology; what happened to the flowers and kisses?" Hoshi said, taking the piece of jerky from him.

"Kyuubi dug up your flowers," the blond said remembering how Kyuubi had been convinced that there was an evil being living inside of the flowers outside the house and he had taken it upon himself to destroy them. Well long story short, Kyuubi and Naruto both got in trouble for ruining Hoshi's garden, because Kyuubi killed all of the flowers and Naruto didn't stop the little fox. However, when Naruto had shown her the "evil beings living inside the garden", which were actually snakes, she let them off the hook, but what she didn't tell Naruto was that the snakes that Kyuubi had killed were all poisonous and could have killed him and the small fox in one bite. Though Naruto soon found this out when he told Inari-kaasan and Inari-jiji about the incident.

"What about my kisses then?" Hoshi asked, causing Naruto to smile and give a sloppy wet kiss on her cheek. Setting the small boy down on the ground, Hoshi ruffled his hair and gave him back his jerky. "Naruto, I'm going to be going into the village for some errands and I want you to stay inside with Kyuubi and not let anyone in, is that okay with you?"

"Uh-huh," Naruto replied as he hugged her leg. "We'll be good boys for Grandma, won't we Kyuubi?"

The little fox yelped in response and pranced around Naruto's feet. Hoshi smirked and ruffled Naruto's hair one last time before telling the two to behave again and left the house.

Making her way into the village with no trouble, Hoshi made her way straight to the Hokage's tower to deliver her mission request and talk to her old friend and the Sandaime. Hopefully it wouldn't take too long or else Naruto would get scared or something bad might happen to him. She would've taken him with her, but since the villagers didn't like him and glared at him, Hoshi didn't think it was the best of ideas. Though leaving a three year old home alone wasn't the best idea either, but what other choice did she have when she needed to get this done and she couldn't trust anyone else to look after Naruto when she was gone? Besides; he could take care of himself for an hour at tops.

Dropping off her mission request first, the old woman then made her way up to the Hokage's office. Nodding to the ANBU guards standing in front of the door, Hoshi walked right into the office without any other notice. Upon entering the room, Hoshi noticed the elder Hokage standing in front of the window over looking the village beneath and all of the busy people living their lives. Not making any noise, the elder woman sat down in a chair in front of the Sandaime's desk, which was piled with paper work, the Sandaime giving no reaction to her arrival or presence.

"It's only been three years; three fateful years now since the Kyuubi's unexpected attack," the third suddenly spoke up as he continued to look out the window.

"It has, hasn't it?" Hoshi agreed from her chair.

"He's still not over it though," Sarutobi sighed, hanging his head a little bit, showing his true age and not the respected man he was believed to be day in and day out.

"How can he be? He lost his wife and child within only hours of each other. He blames himself for what happen; he accepts the fact that he wasn't the cause of his wife's death, but his son's is a whole different story. He knows that it was his fault for what happened to his son; he was the one that was going to use him for a human vessel and accepted that fact, because he knew he would die and never live through the sealing. However, when it didn't go as planned and he didn't die and instead his son died along with the Kyuubi in that flame, he blamed himself for even taking his son onto the battlefield," Hoshi said softly with glazed over eyes as she spoke from experience.

"I'm sorry Hoshi-chan, for a moment I forgot," the Sandaime said, but not going any further then that, turning towards her and giving her a small apologetic smile. Nevertheless, the older woman knew that he was referring to her and the loss of her own family and silently thanked him for not bringing it up. "What can I do for you Hoshi-chan?"

"I would like to ask for permission to leave Konohagakure and travel, Hokage-sama as you very well know, I did sent you a messenger bird after all," Hoshi said calmly without looking Sarutobi in the eyes, it seemed that she had begun to pick up Naruto's habits.

The old Hokage raised his eyebrow in surprise. "What is with the 'Hokage-sama'? What happened to my boastful teammate that never showed anyone any signs of respect?"

"She grew up," Hoshi replied sourly, though it was soon replaced by a grin that made the old man very uneasy. "Or is it that the old number-one rookie of the year just wants to hear his nickname again. Is that it, Monkey-teme?"

"Now that's the dobe I grew up with," the third chuckled. The two old teammates continued to talk with one another, catching up and talking about old time. Soon a few hours passed by without Hoshi realizing it, but when she did, she insisted that she must leave. Walking toward the door, the ex-ANBU turned around when her name was called only to scarcely catch a scroll flying towards her head from ingrained survival reflexes. Looking at it in puzzlement, Hoshi looked up towards her old teammate who was smiling at her in the smile that aggravated her to no end. "That scroll is an indefinite clearance to come and go from Konohagakure and its allies without having to answer to anyone, but the Kages. Good luck on your journey and goodbye, my old friend."

"Thank you and goodbye, Monkey-teme," Hoshi said before she left, not knowing that it would be the last time she would ever see him. Making her way home, Hoshi wondered if the Yondaime Hokage would ever get over his losses like she had. Though it had taken her a long time to get over the loss and guilt that she felt, but what really started to heal her wounds was the little blond ray of sunshine that had appeared on her doorstep three years ago and if anything were to happen to him, she wouldn't know what to do.

Arriving home, the old ninja was expecting Naruto to run out of the house with Kyuubi at his heel and greet her. Yet when they didn't come, a pang of worry settled inside her heart. She had been gone a long time, longer than she had ever been gone before. What if while she was gone some villagers found out Naruto was all alone and harmed him in some way? Or even killed him? No, she couldn't think those things just yet, she had no proof and one thing in being an ANBU taught Hoshi was to never jump to conclusions.

Walking briskly through the house, Hoshi checked all of the rooms. Though with each room that she checked and it turned up empty, the worry in her heart grew larger and her steps became hastier. When she checked the last one and found no Naruto, nor Kyuubi, the grey-haired woman was nearly hysterical. Running back outside as fast as her old body would allow her, Hoshi began to call out Naruto's name.

"NARUTO! NARUTO! WHERE ARE YOU? _NA-RU-TO_!" Hoshi screamed looking around the small clearing their house was located in and into the foliage hoping, praying, for Naruto and Kyuubi to just walk right out of the bushes and smile his apologetic smile of his. It didn't happen. There was no noises, no chakra, nothing to signal Naruto or Kyuubi's presence.

"Excuse me?" a soft female voice floated to Hoshi, causing her to whirl around to see a man and woman in their late thirties standing there. The two of them must have been twins if the jet black hair and violet eyes and similar looks gave any indication of it. Yet Hoshi wasn't really looking at the woman or her companion, but what she held in her arms. Cradled in arms was Naruto fast asleep with Kyuubi curled up on his chest and his arms wrapped around the little fox. "But is this who you are looking for?"

"Naruto," the grey haired woman breathed out in relief as she walked quickly over to the woman and took the blond out of her arms, careful not to jar him or Kyuubi and wake them up. "Thank you for finding him and taking care of him for me. I hope he wasn't any trouble."

"Oh no," the woman said in horror. "He didn't do anything wrong at all, in fact he actually helped us out a lot."

"You have a very special little one there. You should feel very lucky," the man stated.

"I know," Hoshi said, looking up from studying Naruto's face to make sure no harm had come to him, only to find the two strangers were gone. Not knowing what to do, the old woman took Naruto and Kyuubi into the house so they could have a proper bed to sleep in. Not once did she notice that the two people that had just been there had no chakra signatures whatsoever, nor did they leave any sign that they had been there.

Once she was inside, the wind around the small house seemed to talk to itself with two very distinct voices.

"Now why did you go and do that, Sister Dear?"

"I just couldn't let Chibi One get in trouble because of us, Dear Brother."

"I understand, but why did you have to go and show ourselves to a mortal?"

"You didn't have to follow me!"

"And have you get in trouble without me Sister Dear? I think not!"

* * *

"Where are we going Grandma?" Naruto asked as he finished packing everything he was told to, while Kyuubi sat near his backpack watching.

"We're going to go visit my son in Wave Country," Hoshi said with a fond smile on her face as she made sure everything was ready for the long trip to her son's.

"But I thought you didn't have anymore blood family," Naruto said in confusion. He knew he was adopted and he knew what happened to his Grandma's family all those years ago, so her having this son he never even heard of really confused him.

"You're my family aren't you?" Hoshi asked, and when the little blond nodded his head she went on, "and you're not related to me by blood are you?" Once again she waited for him to nod his head in understanding, which he did. "Well he is like you, for you are my grandson and I am your grandmother and he is my son and I am his mother even though we're not related by blood."

"Oh," Naruto simply said, trying to figure out some things in his head. Finishing packing, Naruto picked up his bag and threw it onto his back. Turning toward his grandmother, the little blond told her he was ready and the three set off for Wave Country. As they came to the edge of the clearing, Naruto turned around and gave the only home he remembered a longing look and watched it disappear from sight before looking forward again. Seeing this, Hoshi ruffled the boy's hair, causing him to look towards her with those innocent blue eyes and a sad expression on his face.

"Don't worry Naruto; everything will be alright and work out in the end, I promise," Hoshi said with a loving smile on her face. A smile that was soon replacing Naruto's sad expression, but inside of the little boy a forbidding feeling flickered to life. In spite of the feeling of forbiddances, the little boy gave no thought towards it what so ever and continued on his journey with his grandmother and companion to what would hopefully be his new home. Just like with all children, with nothing else to do but walk, Naruto became very bored very fast. He was a hyperactive child, he had to keep his mind busy and focused, something that walking did not do. So he and Kyuubi made a game out of the whole journey.

As the day went by, Hoshi started to notice how Naruto wasn't complaining about being bored and being rather quiet. Looking at the boy through the corner of her eye, the elder lady was very surprised to find the little boy watching his feet and occasionally he would look up and look around him before looking back at his feet. Every so often a small pink tongue would dart out of his lips to either moisten them or stick out the corner as if he was trying really hard to do something.

As she continued to watch her grandson and his little furry friend, Hoshi notice something was off. Without realizing it, the ex-ANBU stopped walking while Naruto and Kyuubi continued on their way and didn't realized she wasn't with them anymore as they persisted to play their game. Kneeling down, Hoshi let her shinobi instincts take over as she examined the area that she knew her grandson and his fox had just passed over, but she didn't find anything.

That was the problem.

She didn't find _anything_; there was no broken branches on any bushes, no fallen hairs on the ground, no footprints in the soft soil, no _nothing_.

Looking behind her, Hoshi saw that there wasn't any tracks leading up to the place she stood and in front of her there was no tracks leading to where Naruto and Kyuubi continued on with no knowledge of what was going through the elder woman's mind. Now she wasn't surprise that there was no sign of her being there, because all ANBU, whether retired or not, always subconsciously hid their presence in an area, but for Naruto to be doing the same thing as her, that was just unbelievable.

No _jounin_ were able to mask their paths of travel as well as Naruto was doing. Sure ANBU did it subconsciously and without thinking about it and Naruto was concentrating really hard on it, but if the little blond boy continued to do as he was, it would become second nature to him and he would start to do it subconsciously as well. Which meant, by the time he was a genin—or even in the academy if he continued on like he was—he would surpass the survival test without even thinking about it. And Hoshi couldn't even begin to fathom how an ordinary fox could do such a highly intellectual maneuver.

Standing back up, Hoshi brushed off her pants and caught up to Naruto and Kyuubi within seconds, neither of the two having noticed she was gone in the first place, which caused her to frown. Even if Naruto could keep himself concealed, it wouldn't do him any good if he didn't know what was happening around him. Though the thought of telling him this was pushed out of her mind as she notice him looking up more regularly and longer than before without once making a mistake and leaving a clue of his presence behind. This made the shinobi side of Hoshi come out once again and ponder about the little blond and his fox.

If he was already concealing his presence without being how to, then how would he do in other forms of shinobi arts? She already knew that he would be good at genjutsu if he ever took the time to learn it with his imagination. All genjutsu was made up of was patience, chakra control, and an imagination. Sure people without an imagination knew genjutsu, but only people with a very vivid imagination ever became masters. Hoshi even knew that he would be great at taijutsu just because of him being the hyperactive child he was, for he was never quiet, which meant he had a lot of stamina. However, she didn't know how good he would have been at stealth and ninjutsu, until now. He was great at stealth already and with luck he would be good at ninjutsu as well.

Hoshi continued to ponder ways she could teach the boy useful things for being a shinobi without actually teaching him, making it more of a game. All the while, the little blond had no idea of what was gong through his grandmother's head just because of a game he had started to play with Kyuubi just so he wouldn't be bored on their travels. In a way, his unintentional training was semi-intentional. Naruto had noticed that when his grandmother would walk, she would never leave a trail and he wanted to do the same thing as her; thus, his competition with Kyuubi was born. Whoever left the first trace of their existence would lose the game and he did not want to lose. Not this time.

When night came, the little family had a small dinner of rabbit stew and some fruits they had found. They slept out in the open with no tents, just themselves and sleeping bags. Even though Hoshi spent most of the night awake and alert instead of sleeping. She was not going to have any bandits thinking of them as easy prey and taking her grandson away from her; not on her watch.

Thankfully none bandits or ronins did make the mistake of taking wandering into the Uzumakis' campsite and when morning came, the small family continued on their journey after a small breakfast. They only stopped for lunch and spent the rest of the day walking. When dinnertime arrived, Hoshi caught some fish in a nearby stream and after such a filling meal, Naruto and Kyuubi went right to sleep for the night under the protective eyes of his grandmother. The days continued on in a similar fashion for the whole week it took them to get to Wave Country with Hoshi watching Naruto very closely and noticing other little things about him and his pet fox that she had never noticed before.

On the eighth day of their journey the family took a boat across the water to the island, because there was no other way to the island other then via boat. While on the boat, and after the long week worth of walking, the rocking back and forth put the little blond and his kitsune to sleep and when they came to the shores of Wave, Hoshi didn't have the heart to wake them up. Instead she picked them up and made her way to her son's house.

* * *

Twas not good, I deleted this chapter by accident and didn't back up the edited version. Hope this is still readable though.

**_Edited:_** 6/6/2010

**_Shi no Tenshi 902_**


	4. Wave Country

Hope you all like and thank you all that reviewed nicely.

Please read bottom when you're finish reading, I need help with something.

* * *

Naruto was having the best time ever. For the last month, the small blond boy had to get used to the new village and his new home, but it only had taken him a few days to do so. He even got to meet his uncle and already loved him to death, and even if his uncle wouldn't admit it, he adored the little blond to pieces as well. The villagers were even nice to him and didn't call him names or anything like that, they even liked Kyuubi! And now, after living in the area for a month or so, his grandma had finally let him wonder off into the town alone without having her or his uncle take him, though he had to keep Kyuubi with him at all times and be home before dark. Then to top it all off, oji-san promised to teach him some really cool ninja stuff, which made him one a very happy, not to mention hyper, child.

Traveling towards the center of the town, where all the travelers came to set up their trade and sold different items, Naruto heard the villagers around him chatter about a group of unknown traders that had just arrived in town that morning. One such villager, who was talking to their companion, mentioned that there was some shinobi traveling along with them, perking both young child's and foxy friend's interests. Following the large follow of people that were heading into the central market, the two curious partners in mischief making spotted a dense crowd of people surrounding a stall that was new to the market.

Smiling his foxy grin, Naruto ran towards the crowd with Kyuubi on his heels and tried to push his way to the front of the crowd. However, it didn't seem that the crowd would part that easily for the little child and his furry friend, but the two wouldn't give up that easily. Looking at Kyuubi, the little blond gave him a knowing smile and the kitsune gave a happy yelp, before laying on his belly and began to crawl through the crowd, nipping at their feet along the way making the people yelp in pain and move their feet out of the way. Getting on his hands and knees, Naruto began to crawl through the legs of the crowd following the small path Kyuubi had made for them.

Finally after much crawling and nipping, the two made it to the front of the crowd without any harm done. Once they both were at the front and there was enough open space around to move around, the little Uzumaki didn't stand up, but sat down cross-legged and Kyuubi jumped into his lap as the two began to watch in fascination at why everyone was crowded around this one stall with so much vigor. In front of them was a man holding a bunch of kunai and shuriken in his hands and a target about a hundred feet away from him. Grinning like a madman, the man holding all of the weapons threw them simultaneously at the targets. Naruto never saw the shuriken or kunai leave the man's hands nor did he hear the sound of the air parting for the weapons, but on the target there was a perfect circle with three shurikens and three kunai with a smaller circle of two shurikens and two kunai within that and within that circle was a kunai right in the center of the target.

A snort from his right caused Naruto to turn his head towards the sound. What he found was an older man, yet not as old as his grandmother, watching the shinobi in front of them perform. The elder man had a dull worn look to his otherwise bright teal eyes and the scars across his face just further told the young boy this man had seen and done a lot in his life time. Midnight red hair bound together at the nape of his neck by a teal ribbon and regular clothes did nothing else to tell Naruto what this man was like. Yet Naruto had a feeling that this man probably knew a lot about the world. He didn't know _how _he knew this, but the blond knew that whatever this guy was snorting at must have been a real disgrace to the man, yet he didn't get the chance to wonder about this because gasp from the crowd made him turn back toward the show.

The man that had been throwing the kunai and shuriken was now standing in front of another guy that had a katana shoved through his torso. Blood was pouring out of the wound, yet the man didn't show any signs of pain. Instead the first man just merely pulled the katana out of the man with a creepy grin on his face that, Naruto thought, he was the only one to see, other than Kyuubi that was. The man with the katana didn't even seem to care about his bleeding friend; he merely pulled out a feather as big as his own hand and held the gray feather above his head for everyone to see.

"People of Wave, I hold in my hand the truly legendary feather of a phoenix and with just this one little feather I can heal a fatal wound right before your very eyes. Watch," with his little speech over the katana man, as Naruto dubbed him, walked over to the bleeding man and slowly ran the feather down the man's chest and back where the blood was pouring out of his clothing and just like a miracle the man's bleeding stopped all together. The only evidence that he was ever hurt before was the holes in his clothes and the blood puddle on the ground. The crowd gasped in awe and wonder of the power the phoenix feather held, but, for some reason unknown to him, Naruto didn't find this interesting at all. No, instead he was more interested in the reaction of the elderly man that stood by him.

"With just a way of this feather over your heart," the katana man told the crowd, causing Naruto to turn his attention back towards the shinobi in front of him and listening to what he had to say about the feather. "I can guarantee your health for at least a year's worth of time."

The crowd broke loss into chaos and mayhem as everyone around Naruto and Kyuubi yelled and screamed just to touch the phoenix feather, wanting to be healed by it. Many of them held up bundles of money trying to convince the man to sell them the feather, while others begged the man to trade them with a variation of different things. Yet with this many people all in one area and all wanting the same thing, chaos was sure to erupt, and it did. The once kind and peaceful villagers all started to push and shove forward to get to the feather. One of the villagers pushed a rather heavy man, which caused him to loss his balance and fall to the ground, right where one chibi kitsune and his owner sat in all of the chaos.

Acting quickly, Naruto covered up Kyuubi with his own body to make sure that he wouldn't get crushed by the heavy man's weight and instead, all the weight was thrown on top of the blond. A scream of pain rang through the crowd as a soaring pain shot through the small body of a little blond boy, but with all the noises going on, the sound was drowned out by the yells and screams around the boy. No one seemed to take the time to help the small child, even the heavy man that fell on top of him, just rushed to get back to his feet and get to the phoenix feather and to do so, the man had to _step on _Naruto to get back up.

Bracing himself for more pain to come, Naruto tightened his hold around Kyuubi as Kyuubi whined trying to comfort the sobbing blond that was in pain and not caring that the blond's grip was so tight that it hurt. When five seconds pass and no pain came, the little blond looked up to see the elder man he had been admiring before was now standing over the heavy man that was lying flat on his back. An angry look was set on the elder man's face and the crowd around them was utterly quiet, no one dared to move or say anything. They just stared at the elder man with surprise and a hint of fear in their eyes.

"Watch where you're going you idiot!" the elder man seethed. "All of you watch where you're going! You're all acting like a heard of mindless animals. In all your rush and foolish hopes in pursuing false words of promising healthy, you almost caused a child to loss his own health and almost crushed him to _death_!"

Every word seemed to affect the crowd, making them realize how idiotic they were being trying to gain health from a promise from strangers they didn't even know anything about and almost deprived a little boy of his life for their own greed. If this elder man hadn't done anything they all would have been partly responsible for the little boy's death and they probably wouldn't even feel guilty about it. Though the man that owned the phoenix feather really didn't seem to take kindly to the fact that he was being called a fraud in front of all these people and voiced his opinion about it.

"Are you calling me a fraud?" katana man screamed at the elderly man. "I healed my friend of a stab wound to his chest before all these people's eyes. And you call that fake?"

The katana man's words seem to send whispers throughout the crowd on how what he said was very true. Seeing the pathetic crowd's reaction, the elder man picked up the whimpering blond off the ground, fox and all, and made his way through the crowd towards the katana man. As he walked, the elderly man made sure most everyone in the crowd got a glimpse of the crying little child in his arms and the tears traveling down his face as he held his little fox close to his chest. Most, if not all, people's hearts went out to the crying child that they had hurt in their greed to see the phoenix feather, all of them feeling guilty for their greed and what it had done to the innocent child.

"If your _amazing _phoenix feather is so _great_, than why don't you heal this boy's broken ankle?" the elder man asked sternly, setting the blond down on a table that the shinobi's trader partners had set up under their stall. Katana man gave a glance to the friend that he had stabbed, before looking back at the boy sitting on the table with tears rolling down his eyes from the pain coming from his throbbing ankle. Deciding on his internal conflicted, the man walked purposely over to the blond with the fox he held in his arms trying to soothe the boy's pains by purring in a comforting way.

"Stand back," katana man told the elderly man and pushed him back roughly. Standing in front of the boy, the man began to inspect the boy's ankle, or at least that is what it looked like to the whole crowd. In reality, the man began to whisper to Naruto. "Listen up kid," the man whispered harshly, "I'll give you what ever you want if you stop crying when I wave this feather over your ankle and stand up. Even if it causes you pain, don't show it and I give you everything your little heart desires."

Naruto looked up at katana man with tears still in his eyes and a surprised expression on his face. This man wanted him to _lie_ to all these people for simple material objects? Naruto made a face at this, yet the man took it for a sign that he would help him with this when Naruto was simply disgusted with the man. Grinning from ear to ear the man roughly took hold of Naruto's ankle and waved the feather over it. However, when the man harshly jerked Naruto to his feet there was a popping sound and a new wave of pain flowed through his body as well as a scream of agony.

The elderly man that had first helped Naruto, rushed over to his side when the blond began to scream in pain yet again. Picking him up in his arms the elder man turned to the 'shinobi' and his partner, a glare on his face. The two men felt a sudden chill run down their spines, an omen of what was to come. Kyuubi, who was roughly dialoged from Naruto's arms when the boy was yanked harshly to his feet, growled at the two men and was about to chew the two shinobi out, but the old redheaded man beat him to it; only he chewed them out with words instead of teeth like Kyuubi was planning to do.

"You two are no shinobi, your just greedy pricks that scam people and hurt more than help. Frauds, and the next time you try to make it look like you were actually throwing shurikens and kunai, than make sure you are holding the same number of kunai as there are on the target, cause that's what gave you away. You only held five kunai, but there was six on the target, only frauds would try a trick like that to gain the attention of your crowd. Just look what you did to this boy, his ankle was just twisted and now, after your so called 'phoenix feather' _healed_ him, he now has a broken ankle. You should feel ashamed of yourselves, but I wouldn't count on it since you two are nothing but bastards that don't know the meaning of guilt," the elderly man roared at the two men. With that the elderly man left in hopes to go get the blond's ankle fixed and left the two fake shinobi to the angry crowd and their traveling companions.

Kyuubi seeing the elder man leaving with Naruto followed him, his always hyper state, like Naruto's own, missing. Instead he followed the elder man with distress steps. Smelling Naruto's tears made Kyuubi feel even worse about what happened than he already did. Naruto was protecting him and made sure he didn't get hurt, while he himself got hurt instead. He was the one that was supposed to protect Naruto, not the other way around. Inari-okaasan and Inari-ojiji would be very disappointed in him, though Naruto's well being was more important to him than the disappointment coming from the two gods. Just the thought of the blond in pain sent a whimper through his small body.

"It's alright Chibi Kitsune, Chibi One will be fine," the elderly man told the fox as he shifted the teary-eyed blond in his arms. His voice didn't sound old and worn like it had, but young and very familiar. Cocking his head to the side, Kyuubi looked at the man curiously before everything fell into place and a slightly happy bark was given. Only slightly, because Kyuubi was still mad at himself for getting Naruto hurt. "Come now Chibi Kitsune, it wasn't your fault that Chibi One got hurt," yet Kyuubi would not listen to him.

"Kyuubi, listen to Inari-jiji, he's right. I was the one that choose to protect you from that mob of a crowd, besides that's what friends are for right? And you'd do the same for me," Naruto said to his fox friend as he grinned on of his foxy grins.

Inari just chuckled as his form of an old man faded away and was replaced by his original form. "Perspective as always Chibi One, how did you figure out it was me?"

Scrunching up his noise, the blond answered with a very, very fox like grin on his face. "You and Inari-kaasan are the only ones that call me Chibi One."

"So we are, so we are," the god said with a smile on his face, however the smile soon turned into a frown when he looked at Naruto's ankle that was now swollen and didn't look all that good. "How's your ankle Chibi One?"

"It doesn't hurt that much," the Uzumaki said, his fox grin gone and his eyes diverted form Inari's. Yet when Inari shifted him in his arms again, pain shot through his body once again and he tried to hold in the pain he felt yet a whimper still escaped his lips. At the look that Inari was giving him, Naruto added to his earlier statement. "Well not that much."

"You're a stubborn one, you know that Chibi One?" Inari told the little body as Kyuubi yelped his agreement only to have Inari turn his sights on the little fox. "You're just as stubborn as him, Chibi Kitsune."

Both of them seemed to disagree with this and voiced their opinions, rather loudly, towards the chuckling god. Kyuubi even went as far as nipping the god at the ankle to show his displeasure at his comment, though it didn't get the desired reaction he had wanted. No, instead the God of Foxes chuckled turned out into full blown laughter, which the two didn't take lightly. In retaliation the two refused to talk to the god, which made him only laugh harder, because of their childish behavior, not once thinking that they were indeed children in their own rights.

Instead of talking to the laughing fox god, Naruto took the time to look around him since he didn't know where they were going. The path they were on was familiar and it took Naruto a few minutes to rack his brain to find out why, but he did. The path was familiar for it was the very same path he had taken when his grandmother and him, along with Kyuubi, had been going to the docks on the east side of Wave. The trip to the docks with his grandmother was to pick up a delivery from Mist for something or another, but he was to interested in the new place around him than to listen to his grandmother tell him what they were picking up, which turned out to be a letter from an old friend of hers.

Right before they had reached the dock area, Inari took a small path off to the side of the main road and went deeper into the forest. Naruto was going to ask where they were going, but remembered that he wasn't talking to Inari-jiji at the moment and quickly closed his mouth, having to wait and find out where they were going. He didn't have to wait long, for in the distance Naruto could make out a figure sitting on a boulder and four white foxes dancing around said boulder. Without even having to get closer to make out whether the person was a boy or a girl, Naruto already knew who it was, Inari-kaasan and her foxes along with Inari-jiji's foxes.

Kyuubi had also seen the foxes and the fox goddess and ran ahead to greet her, at the same time to tell on the fox god and how he was being mean. Yelping happily, the little red fox jumped up into the goddess' lap and greeted her warmly by licking her cheek. After getting a scratch behind the ear and a hello from Inari-kaasan, he processed to tell on the fox god. Inari-kaasan just gave a little giggle and said she'd speak to him about being nicer to him and Naruto, which got a happy yelp from Kyuubi before he jumped off her lap and began to play with the other foxes, until Inari and Naruto caught up with him.

"Now what is this I hear about you being mean to Chibi Kitsune and Chibi-" the goddess started, but when she notice how Naruto was not walking on his own and how her brother was cradling his body to his chest in a gently grasp as if he could break him, she knew something was wrong. When she saw the blond's swollen ankle, it confirmed her suspicions. "_Chibi One_, what happened to him?"

"There was a little mishap," Inari started, but his sister wouldn't hear it and quickly took the blond into her own arms.

"Why did you bring him here? Why didn't you get him treated? Don't answer that, we need to go get him treated now, come on."

"But it's just a bro-" the god started but was cut off by his sister's glare. At that moment he vowed to remember that you should never get in the way of an over protective fox, or in this case, an over protective fox goddess. Quickly taking the form of the elderly man once again, Inari followed his sister as she took on a form of an elderly lady with clothes just like his own and her hair a dark brown color with teal eyes. Their foxes all followed behind them as Inari, as an elderly woman, carried Naruto to the small village by the docks in search of a healer or med-nin.

Coming to a small hut with sign outside the door that said healer, the little group, which looked like a traveling family with a lot of foxes for pets, entered the hut. Demanding treatment for the blond, the goddess got everyone's attention with the killer intent she was giving off. The people fell over their own feet trying to help the blond and not have the "old scary lady" attack them. Finally after the med-nins had set Naruto's ankle back into place and healed the bone with no problems, the trio, with their foxes, left the hut without having to pay, since all they wanted was the "old scary lady" to leave.

Running out of the hut with a smile on his face and Kyuubi on his heals, Naruto was laughing and playing around as if nothing had ever happened. Running a little ways ahead of the divine beings, the blond boy and red fox waited for them and the white foxes to catch up. Once they had caught up to them, the duo would just run off again and stop a few feet in front of them, repeating the whole process all over again. This went on for a while before the goddess of foxes spoke up, her brother was still to afraid to have his head bitten off and feed to their foxes to talk.

"Now Chibi One, we didn't just come here to play this time," the goddess in disguise spoke up once they had caught up to Naruto and Kyuubi again. The boy understanding that his game was over, fell into step in between the divine beings and listened to what they had to say. "Now Chibi One, have you been practicing what we taught you from our last visit?"

"Uh-huh," the blond said with a nod, "I practice every day when I can, I almost made it to the top of the tree!"

"Very good, Chibi One," Inari complimented, finally finding his voice and speaking up, as he ruffled the blond's already messy hair. "It seems you're doing very good at chakra control for one your age. Though now we get into the fun stuff."

"Really? Like what?" Naruto asked excitedly, ready to learn anything new he could. The two chuckled at his excitement that seemed to even affect his familiar who seemed just as excited as him. Those two really loved to learn and their curiosity was an endless source of encouragement to do so.

"We're going to be teaching you how to recognize chakra signatures and how to hide your own so you won't be detected," both said at the small time before stopping and looking at each other, Naruto just looked on confused not knowing how the two talked in perfect unison.

"To read and recognize one's chakra signature is quite simple really, yet at the same time it is quite difficult," Inari said quickly before him and his sister could talk in unison once again. "At the beginning it's really hard, since you have to expand your natural detection field, or aura in other words, and that takes some getting used to. Though once you have that down, it becomes a really easy thing to do."

"So how do you expand your aura?" Naruto asked just ready to try, yet he wanted to make sure to get all the information before jumping ahead forward into it.

"Well that's the difficult part," the goddess said taking over the explanation. "You have to 'feel' for it, since it doesn't have the exact same feeling for everyone, we can't really tell you what to feel for, but you'll know what it is when you find it."

Nodding his head, even though he didn't really understand fully what Inari-kaasan was saying, Naruto thought about it himself. If it didn't feel the same for every person then that meant he couldn't actually feel it with his hands, but with something else. But how was he supposed to feel it when he didn't know; was he to "feel" it with his mind? Or maybe his heart? But it could be felt with his spirit and not his heart or mind. Or maybe even his soul.

Closing his eyes, Naruto tried to think what he was to use to "feel" his aura with. What he didn't realize as he walked with Inari-kaasan, Inari-jiji, and the foxes was that he wasn't looking where he was going, but following them. He was following them, but not in a normal way a child should to do, but a shinobi. He was following them by the flicker of the four white chakra signatures. He was following them with the very thing he was trying to learn how to do. Suddenly his eyes snaked opened, and he stopped dead in his tracks.

"All," he whispered to himself, catching the others attention as they heard what he had said with their highly sensitive hearing.

"What is it Chibi One?" Inari-kun asked.

"All, you have to use all of your mind, heart, spirit, and even your soul to feel your aura," the blond boy exclaimed, figuring it out in merely minutes after he was given the problem. The two siblings looked at each other, surprise and confusion written on their faces. They knew when they chose Naruto to be their Chosen One that he was smarter than most being a Pure One and all, but this was something else completely. The little blond had just done something that would have taken a normal shinobi awhile to figure out for themselves, but by the looks of things he had already started to read and recognize one's chakra signatures. That usually took any trained shinobi at least a few days to do, though he hadn't expanded his aura that far, but it was still impressive.

"Very good," Inari-jiji said hiding his confusion and smiling proudly at the little boy. "Now practice that and you'll be in great shape."

Nodding his head eagerly, Naruto closed his eyes and searched inside for that feeling that he had when he first began to recognize chakra signatures around him. Finding it and bringing it forth, the blond tried to expand his aura. At first nothing happened and everything seemed to be the same. Trying even harder, a light sweat broke out over the boy's body as he subconsciously began to expand his aura. The first thing that Naruto truly felt was who else but Kyuubi, the little fox felt like a fox, that was the only way the boy could describe it, yet he had the underlying spice of embers. Next the blond felt Inari-jiji and Inari-kaasan's foxes, and like Kyuubi, they felt like foxes yet had an underlying spice, but theirs was of snow instead of ember and they flickered white and not a blood red like Kyubi.

Now when it came to the god and goddess who were right next to their foxes Naruto couldn't feel anything. Thinking that it was because that his aura wasn't big enough yet to feel their chakra, he tried to expand his aura even more. Feeling little prickles of power on the outer edge of his boundaries and expanding his aura even more until he was at his limits, the blond identified a few new chakra source that felt like a fish swimming through the open sea. Yet Naruto knew that these chakra sources weren't the divine beings, but someone else's.

Opening his eyes the blond began to pout thinking he couldn't even go three feet around him when reading and recognizing chakra. Seeing the frown, the two siblings looked at each other wondering what was wrong. The boy was doing good with his chakra readings for only being at it less than an hour. What could have gotten the boy so discouraged about it that he was pouting? The two couldn't figure that one out on their own.

"What's wrong Chibi One?" Inari-kaasan asked sincerely.

"I can't feel you or Inari-jiji," Naruto pouted, his head cast down not looking her in their eyes thinking he would disappoint them. When he didn't get any reaction, Naruto dared to look up, yet didn't, his fear that he let the two down overriding his curiosity for once. Though his head snapped up towards Inari-kaasan's when he heard her giggle in delight. He must have had a questioning look on his face since Inari-kun smiled at him warmly and began to explain to him why his sister was reduced to a laughingstock.

"Chibi One, we're gods. Do you think that we'd let ourselves be found that easily? Besides we have no chakra, so how can you sense something that's not there?" Inari-jiji said with a smile on his face that keep on twitching as if he was trying to keep from chuckling with his sister. Bowing his head again, but this time from embarrassment, Naruto studied the ground with great fascination.

"I still wasn't able to read anybody's chakra, except for the people around us," Naruto said shyly, feeling like he had made a fool of himself for not realizing that gods were _hidden _and he wouldn't be able to sense them. Looking around them, Inari-niisama grinned a very foxy grin at what he found, turning his head towards Naruto, he was about to tell the blond something when she saw his sister sharing the same foxy grin as he worn.

"Naruto," Inari-jiji said instantly grabbing the boy's attention since they had never called him by his name but Chibi One. "Look around us and tell me what you see?"

Looking up, Naruto observed the what was going on in the town around them. "I see some villagers buying some fruit, some venders selling meat, and some fishermen unloading their catch of fish, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"And who is closest to us and how far away are they to us?" Inari-kaasan asked the confused boy.

"Uhhh, the fishermen that are on the dock about twent-" the blond trailed off as his eyes widened realizing what the divine beings were implying. He had expanded his aura twenty feet, _twenty feet_, on his first real try. He couldn't believe it, he had done that well and he had thought that he had only expanded his aura two or three feet, not twenty. Now he felt really proud of himself and all he had accomplished.

"That's right Chibi One," Inari-jiji said, going back to using their affectionate nickname for him, "you spread out your aura over twenty feet."

"I did it, I did it!" Naruto cheered himself on, jumping up and down excitedly. Kyuubi by his side yelping and bouncing around him just as excited for him as he was. The other foxes barked once or twice each as congratulations for him as well. Finally giving one last jump up, Naruto landed on his feet before falling backwards as the world above him swirled around. Apparently he was tired from the earlier event of the day and then going straight into recognizing chakra and reading them without any rest or food had really gotten to him.

"It seems like Chibi One is tired, Sister Dear," Inari-jiji said with a sly grin on his face.

"Oh my," Inari-kaasan said with a fake gasp of surprise and just for an effect she put one hand over her heart and the other over her mouth to make it seem like she was taken back. "I guess we should take him home and forget about that special lunch we had planned for him and Chibi Kitsune, Dear Brother."

"I agree very much, Sister Dear," the god said with a serious face as he watched Naruto out of the corner of his eye and how he shot up at the mentioning of a _special lunch._ He also heard Kyuubi's whimpering and pleading look he was giving him as well as his sister. "I guess all that food will just have to go to waste."

"It sure will-"

"NO!" the blond boy shouted to gain the two divine beings attention as well as the rest of the people's attention around round them. Blushing slightly form all the attention, Naruto waited until the people around them went back to what they were doing before continuing on what he wanted to say, much more quietly this time. "What I mean is that, I'm not that tired and it's such a shame to waste perfectly good food that's been made _especially _for me and Kyuubi, right Kyuubi?"

The little fox nodded its head and barked its agreement as the gods and their foxes smiled at them.

* * *

Okay, I have a little problem, you see, I named this story 902 for a reason, but now I can remember this reason at all. Which makes me sad, but anyways, I'm asking any of you to help me come up with a new name. If it's Japanese also please give the translation. Thank you for listening to me ramble and please help me come up with a new name. 

Also I would like to thank _**Prince Krappy**_ for editing this chapter and _**makacatori**_ I might take you up on your offer in the future, cause I know I'll probably reach a writer's block and I read some of your work and it's really good if I do say so myself. So thank you for the offer.

Finally, I thank everyone who reviews, it makes me feel like I'm not a totally failer at writing and if you were a Flamer, leave me alone, I don't want any!


	5. Oniichan!

I thank everyone once again for their wonderful review and I'm glade that you all like my story, but...

_**I STILL NEED A BETA AND HELP WITH FINDING A NEW TITLE!!! CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME?!?!?!**_

(Details in previous chapters)

None that I've gotten this out of my system, on with the story.

* * *

Naruto and Kyuubi were happily making their way back to their home in Wave Country from their fun day with Inari-jiji and Inari-kaasan, and the special meal they had. Tied around Kyuubi's neck was a small white sack and a sack similar to Kyuubi's, just larger in size, rested in Naruto's hands. These sacks carried the left over food Naruto just could not put to waste, so Inari-kaasan gave him and Kyuubi the little sacks to carry the food in. 

However, in Wave Country during the winter months, it got darker faster. Luck just did not seem to be on the blond's side today and when he was only half way home, night fell and fell fast. Now normally, Naruto nor Kyuubi were not scared of the dark or little noises, but they felt as if something was wrong and should not be in the forest that night. He did not know what told him this nor what was watching him; Naruto just knew, and it was making him jumpy, which transferred to Kyuubi through their bond.

"Hey Kyuubi, do you think that maybe we should run? Just to get out of here faster?" Naruto asked in a soft shaky voice. His little fox companion nodded his head in agreement, and the two took of running. As the two ran, the blond swore that there was a voice whispering to him, telling him to run faster, that there was danger around him, as the wind blew around him, but it perplexed him, because the voice was not of any voice that he had ever heard before. Though something inside of him told him to listen and trust the voice, so he did.

The two ran with all of their being and pretty soon they could see the small bridge that they needed to cross in order to get them home. Smiling Naruto, started to run faster, knowing that he was almost safely home. He just taken a step onto the bridge when, the voice telling him that danger was near died down and another, one that did not sit well with his mind screamed at him to stop. Hearing the scream as if someone had just screamed inside his head, Naruto stumbled to a stop, causing Kyuubi to stop and look at him curiously. The blond had fallen to his knees, eyes closed tight in pain and an expression of agony embedded in his face as his arms clutched the sack of food tighter to his chest.

Naruto was in pain, his head seemed like it was going to explode from the sheer force of it. Even though his eyes were closed, all he saw was red. Thousands of needles seemed to be stabbing him repeatedly in the head as fire burned inside the puncture marks caused by the needles. The fire then started to spread throughout his body as if it was fire flowing through his veins instead of blood. It hurt, and it hurt bad.

"Make it stop, make it stop. Please! Make it STOP!" the little child screamed like he was being sent through torture. Tears streamed down his face from his tightly closed eyes. Kyuubi tied to find out what was causing his master's, and most importantly, friend's, pain, but the little fox could not. Nothing physically was hurting him, but mentally seemed to be a whole other game. The problem was, Kyuubi did not know what was hurting Naruto mentally nor how, which reduced him to being useless.

Kyuubi started to whimper, trying to get across to his friend that everything was going to be alright and nothing bad would happen to him. Yet the blond child just continued to cry and whimper in pain, not hearing the little kitsune's comforting whimpers at all. He was trying to figure out what to do, when movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. Whirling about, the fox got in a ready stance, legs spread out and firm around him, making sure that his body was firmly in place, while his body was close to the ground, ready to pounce if need be.

Naruto had heard his little kitsune friend trying to calm him down, but the pain was too intense to do anything other than cry and try to block out the pain he was feeling. However, the more he tried to fight it the worse the pain seemed to get. He was about to scream out once more, when a cool numbing sensation surrounded his temples and the pain lessened. The pressure of the needles disappeared, and the fire in his veins was vanquished by a cool soothing feeling. When the pain was completely gone, Naruto opened his eyes only to meet with kind soft brown eyes.

"Feeling any better?" a voice, that Naruto could only relate to cold flowing water in the winter, asked. Blinking a few times to clear his watery vision, Naruto tried to make out what his healer looked like. When he finally could see clearly, the blond saw a very pretty person was right in front of him. The soft brown eyes of the person and long black hair contemplated their snow white skin. The faded pink and red kimono with white obi furthered to make the brunet look pretty in Naruto's mind and the black choker the person wore topped the whole outfit off. At that point, for the first time, Naruto notice the brunet's hand were on the either side of his temples softly massaging the skin and the cool sensation was coming from the hands.

"Uh-huh," Naruto mumbled nodding his head as the person's hands retreated to their side. "Thank you."

"Your welcome; I'm just glad I could help, you seemed to be in a lot of pain," the brunet said with a kind smile and Naruto smiled back just as kindly. Not liking being left out, Kyuubi pushed his way in between the two and yelped happily, happy that Naruto was all better, causing the brunet to laugh at the little fox's antics. "Your little friend here seems very protective of you, when I tried to approach you he almost bit me."

"Kyuubi's like that, he doesn't like to see his precious people in pain. I bet he's sorry for what he did though," Naruto explained to the brunet. Kyuubi, showing that he was sorry, brushed his head against the brunet's hand and purred in apology. "That's Kyuubi's way of saying he's sorry."

Looking down at the fox kittling, the brunet smiled and scratched the kittling behind the ears, making him purr even louder. "Your welcome Kyuubi-kun," the brunet said, before a grumbling noise was heard and a red tint appeared on the brunette's pale cheeks. "Sorry…"

Understanding what the noise was after the brunette said sorry, Naruto looked down at the crushed sack in his hands and smiled slightly. Sitting down cross-legged, instead of on his knees since they felt as if they would bruise from falling hard on them, Naruto motioned for his new friend to do the same. Not really understanding, the brunet sat on the ground, only with more manors than Naruto, and watched as the blond set the crushed sack in front of him like it was some prize possession of sorts. Untying the sack, Naruto presented the goods to the brunet with a sheepish smile on his face.

"I know they're a little crushed and all, but I hope you like it. It's really good," Naruto said freely, not really knowing what to say and just spoke the first thing that came to his mind. Never did the blond once notice the disbelieving look on the other's face.

"I can't take this," the brunet said, finally stopping Naruto's ramblings, handing the sack back to him.

"Why not?" the blond asked confused, not knowing why the brunet was refusing the food, when his new friend was obviously hungry and definitely needed it.

"Because…because…because-" the brunet tried to find a reason why.

"See? Even you can't find a reason not to take the food, so eat it," Naruto exclaimed, handing the food back to the brunet forcefully. This time the brunet did not even try to argue with Naruto, the other just looked down at the food instead. Now Naruto was really confused, why was not his new friend going to eat the food? That's when he saw a drop of water hit the ground in front of the other and he looked up into the sky, yet it was clear. Looking back, Naruto now understood that it was not a rain drop, but a tear drop coming from his new friend.

"Thank you," a soft almost inaudible voice said, Naruto almost did not catch the words, but the wind was blowing just right to allow them to travel to his ears and catch the words of the other. "Thank you," the brunet said louder, this time looking up to show tear stains face, yet happy brown eyes, "No one has ever done anything like this for me before."

"You're welcome, what are friends for anyways?" Naruto asked innocently, giving the other one of his foxy smiles.

"Friends?" the other asked skeptically, before thinking on it hard. The brunet seemed to come to a quick decision and returned the smile. Something inside of him compelled him to say it, and he had always trusted his feelings, they had never done him wrong before. "How about friends and maybe brothers as well?"

"Brothers?" Naruto asked confusedly. "I've never had a brother before, but I like the sound of it. Friends and brothers, it is!" the blond declared loudly, "By the way, my name is Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto."

"I'm Haku," the brunet said, eating some of the crushed food; it might have been crushed but it was still good, just like the blond had said.

"Uzumaki Haku," Naruto corrected. At Haku's confused look, he clarified, "You're my brother now, so now you're Uzumaki Haku."

Smiling and laughing the two new brothers and the little kitsune began to tell one another about their lives, while Haku ate the food. They laughed at the funny things that they had once done and cheered the other up after telling a rather painful time of the past. In the short time they had been together, they had learned each other inside and out, as if they had known each other their whole lives and were just catching up with one another after a long mission out of their home village. However, each one of them left out some small little details; Naruto had left out telling Haku about Kyuubi really being a demon and him training with immortals, and Haku had left out the reason why his father tried to kill him, he left out the fact he had a bloodline limit and about his dreams that revolved around the blond.

During this time, neither Naruto nor Kyuubi realized that the moon was well above their heads, and it was well into the night. The nocturnal animals had even came out and were hunting for their meal for that night, stretching their limbs while they were at it. Owls hooted around them and bats fluttered by above their heads. By this time, the two should have been home way before now.

Suddenly a poof of smoke appeared in front of the trio, causing Naruto to stiffen and Haku to pull a small senbon from somewhere inside of his kimono. Kyuubi was instantly on guard himself, yet he relaxed when the smoke cleared to reveal a well known figure to him. Naruto instantly relaxed causing Haku to lower his senbon slightly and study the person before him.

"Grandma!" Naruto said happily at the sight of his grandmother, yet his small voice was over powered by an angry and stern voice.

"_UZUMAKI NARUTO! _You're in big trouble!" the woman bellowed, glaring down at the boy.

Hearing his grandmother yell, Naruto instantly knew that he did something wrong, _very_ wrong. In all of his short life he had never, _never_, been yelled at like that by his grandmother. He had always been good, because he knew that his grandmother was not as young as he was and to look after him would be a burden on her. So he always did what he was told and even if he did not, he had never messed up that bad to cause her to yell at him like she just did. In truth, it scared him.

"Do you know what you put me through tonight? I gave you permission to go to town, because you promised you'd be home before sundown. Me and your uncle have been looking everywhere for you when you didn't show up at home when night fell!" Hoshi yelled at her grandson, never once noticing the little boy with his head down with sniffles coming from him. She was just worried about him, when he did not come home right away and it scared her so much that the more she thought about it, the more it scared her. Then when she found Naruto and Kyuubi sitting on the bridge that led into town no where near where they should have been, her worry changed to anger, anger that she directed at the two.

"I'm sorry," Naruto said just as softly as Haku had when he apologized for his hunger, yet Naruto's words were laced with sadness.

Hearing the small, un-Naruto-ish voice come from the boy, Hoshi stopped her ranting and truly looked the boy over for the first time since she had arrived. The boy had his head down and she could faintly see tear droplets fall to the ground in the soft light provided by the moon. His once nice outfit was crinkled with tears and rips in array of different places and she swore she saw a spot of blood on his clothing, but could not be sure. Naruto's usually spiky vibrant blond hair seemed somewhat dull and dead looking and Kyuubi did not look any better.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Naruto said again, breaking Hoshi's train of thoughts just in time for her to see him lift his head up and look at her with tear filled eyes. "I'm sorry I made you mad. I'm really, really, _really_ sorry," the blond cried.

"Oh, shhh-shh, it's okay, Naruto. I'm not mad at you, just worried," Hoshi said as she kneeled down next to the boy and hugged the boy, trying to calm him. Gradually his cries lessened till they were just small hiccups. "Feeling better now?" she asked pulling him away from her chest to get a good look at him, but movement out of the corner of her eye had her turning her head to see a little boy only a year or two older than Naruto standing there. "Naruto, who is this?"

Looking over at Haku from within his grandmother's grasps, an small smile made its way on his tear stained face. At his downcast hesitant look, Naruto wiggled out of Hoshi's grasp and grabbed Haku's hand. Pulling him until he stood in front of Hoshi, Haku right beside him, Naruto gave a vulpine smile as he proudly introduced Haku to his grandmother.

"Grandma meet Uzumaki Haku, my new onii-chan!"

* * *

Days after Haku had joined the Uzumaki household, life went back to being as normal as possible with Naruto and Kyuubi under one roof. However, now they had an older brother to look after them and keep them out of trouble as much as possible or get into more trouble with his help. Haku had easily gotten used to his new family and fit in perfectly. He did not have to worry about anything and was happy living with the Uzumakis. So much that he had officially been adopted into the Uzumaki family and went through the same adoption ceremony as Naruto once had went through as baby. 

At first, he had been a little scared to go through the ceremony, but when Naruto said there was nothing to worry about and told him about how he went through the same thing, Haku had been shocked. He did not know that Naruto was an orphan at one point, like him, but it only served to make the bond between them that much stronger. Plus, when he learned that even their uncle was also adopted into the family, he felt even more at home. Their uncle had even taken to training Haku along with Naruto and Kyuubi, when he could. Though he never revealed the fact that he had a bloodline limit to anyone, and he was not the only one keeping secrets.

Naruto, ever since coming home from that night on the bridge, had been having headaches that hurt badly and stopped him from thinking straight, but he did not tell anyone. It was not like the first headache he had that Haku had made go away when they first meet, so the little blond did not think it was that important. Yet as the days went by, the small headaches that would come and go started to last longer and longer. Soon there was a constant dull throb of pain in the back of his head that he tried to ignore, but it got stronger and stronger as the days went by as well, but still no one notice the little boy was in pain, since he hid it so well.

Soon a whole month went by since the day that Haku became apart of the Uzumaki household, and the little family was going to go on a little camping trip that second as a survival training for the two boys. All they were going to bring were the clothes they wore and what they could carry in a small knapsack. They were told to do their own packing, to see what the two boys would take with them and what they found as essential items. It was a test of sorts to see if they were listening during their train sessions and a pretest of sorts to test for things that they had not learned to see if they needed to teach them the importance of packing light, but still pack the essentials for long missions.

"Grandma, we're done!" Naruto yelled, running into the room with Kyuubi riding on his shoulder and Haku following at a more calm pace. Both were holding a black knapsack in their hands. Smiling at the two boys, Hoshi set down the two boxes she was holding.

"Okay, now let me see what you two packed," Hoshi said kindly, smiling at the two boys as they handed their knapsacks over to her.

Opening up Naruto's first, Hoshi took out the contents one by one. When she was finished she was greatly disappointed in her smallest grandson for not paying attention during training session, yet she did not let it show on her face. Instead she picked up Haku's knapsack and began to pull what he had pack out. He too seemed to not have listen during their training sessions, and when she took out the last of his items, a small sigh escaped her lips. She was about to scold the boys for not paying attention to their training sessions when something caught her eye. Looking back at the table where everything the boys had packed laid, her lips began to twitch before they formed a soft smirk.

'Those little devils,' Hoshi thought to herself, staring at where the two's camping supplies laid. On one the side of the table that Hoshi had set down the things inside of Naruto's knapsack, there laid two bags of beef jerky, a big fluffy blanket, and small container. On the other side she had laid Haku's things, which were a small pot, two bags of herbs, two canteens, and a fold up tent. It seemed that the boys had not grabbed unnecessary things after all and were paying attention to their training sessions. Yet instead of each taking everything, they boys split up the load and shared the burden. Naruto's two bags of beef jerky were just incase of not finding any food for the first night and Haku's pot was for cooking or boiling water and the canteens were for their water supply. Haku also had a big enough tent that both boys could fit in it without a problem as well as Kyuubi. Then there was Naruto's blanket, which was big enough for all of them to fit under and keep warm. Finally Haku's herbs were most likely used for healing and medical reasons, both her and Haku knowing how Naruto always managed to get hurt in one way or another. Lastly, Hoshi could bet that inside the container of Naruto's were her soldier pills that had mysteriously gone missing one day.

It seemed that not only did the two understand and listen to their lessons, but they also learned teamwork without her even having to push them in the right direction. They were going to make fine ninjas when they were older. Even if they still had a lot to learn, the two were well on their way to becoming genin even at such a young age. Hoshi even predicted that by the time they were to graduate from the academy and become genin they would be well past the level of genin and moving onto chunnin level if they continued learning the way they were. However, Hoshi did not know of how _special _the two were and did not know they half of what they were capable of doing.

"Very good, boys," Hoshi said, packing their things back inside of their knapsacks, "and for doing such a good job, I have something for you."

"Really? What is it?" Naruto asked eagerly, bouncing from one foot to the other. Picking up the two boxes that she had been carrying earlier, Hoshi handed them to the two boys and ushered them off to go open them and put them on, which the boys instantly figured out that whatever was in the boxes it must be some sort of clothing or something similiar. The two brothers ran off to their rooms and quickly opened their presents eagerly. Hoshi watched the two run off and smiled happily, waiting for them to come back in and show her what they looked like with their new clothes.

Haku was the first to come back in and was wearing the new clothing that Hoshi had got him, which was a whole new outfit. It was a fighting style kimono that was black with blue trimmed and a high collar. The obi was also blue as well as the new shinobi sandals that matched. Black jounin pants were worn underneath the kimono and wrapped around his right leg was a blue shuriken holster filled with brand new shinobi weapons, but mainly senbons since Hoshi knew how much he liked the needles.

Naruto came out just shortly after wearing his new outfit as well. The outfit was a bright orange jumpsuit with black shinobi sandals and a black shirt underneath the jacket . Unlike his brother's outfit that was perfect for being a shinobi, his just screamed 'Kill Me Now! I'm Right Here!' yet this was done on purpose. Naruto, as it was, was already great at hiding where he was, when he wanted to, and Hoshi had got him the outfit because of it. She thought that if he could fully conceal himself wearing the bright vibrant orange outfit, no one could find him if he wore all black, that and the fact that until he learned how to hide himself wearing the orange jumpsuit, it would be easier on her to find him.

"So how do you two like them?" Hoshi asked.

"I like it a lot grandma," Haku said smiling.

"How come I have to wear bright orange? I like the color, but not _that _much and it's heavy too. And why does Haku-niichan get weapons and I don't?" the blond whined.

"Naruto, Haku is two years older than you and more responsible, that's why he gets weapons and you don't," Hoshi explained to the blond hair child. "As for the orange outfit, think of it as training of sorts. If you can hide in that, you can hide in anything. And the reason why it is heavy is because there is weights seals sewn in to the fabric, another part of your training. If it makes you feel any better, Haku has them sewn on his clothing, too. Later, while we are on our camping trip, I'll show you and Haku how to make the seals heavier, lighter, and to deactivate them."

"Okay," the blond mumbled dejectedly when he heard that he would not be getting weapons like Haku, but brightened up a millisecond later. "Where's Oji-san?"

"He had to take care of a few things, but he should be joining us on our trip later on," Hoshi told the blond, who pouted at hearing. Seeing the boy look so down, Hoshi reassured him that their uncle would definitely come. "Don't worry, he promised to join up with us later."

Perking up, the blond started to bounce around the room happily, not being able to be patient or stand still. After rechecking to see if they had everything, Hoshi gathered up the boys and locked the doors as they left. Naruto and Kyuubi practically lead the group all the way to the forest edge before they slowed down for the others to catch up to them, since they did not know where they were going next. Once his grandmother and brother caught up with him, Naruto let Hoshi take the lead as she led them to where they would be camping for the next few days. On the way, she explained to them about many useful things about being a shinobi and taught them how to use the weight seals on their clothing, which they both learned extremely fast.

After hours of walking, the family finally came to a stop in a small clearing and decided that this was where they would spend the night. Setting up camp went by quickly and without a hitch as they all pitched into to get everything done. After they set up the tents and their sleeping arrangements, Hoshi had given each of the boys a small task to complete while she got dinner ready. Haku was to get water down by the stream they had passed on their way there, and Naruto was to collect firewood around the campsite, since Hoshi could keep an eye on him that way.

As Naruto tried to find small dry sticks for the fire, the blond wondered further into the forest with Kyuubi by his heels, not realizing that he could not see the camp anymore. Collecting a few more pieces of wood, Naruto was satisfied with his arm load of sticks and the few pieces that Kyuubi carried in his mouth. Turning back, Naruto finally realized that he wondered further into the forest than he should have, but since he knew his way back, he did not think much of it. And if there was the slightest chance that he was lost, Kyuubi could always find the way back for him. So without any worries, the two made their way back to camp, Kyuubi trotting a few paces ahead of Naruto.

However, they were not even half way back to the campsite when it happened. Just like the night when Naruto had first meet Haku, a sudden pain came upon him, attacking his brain and making him want to hurl. Dropping the dry wood he had gathered, Naruto gripped his head in pain as the noise of the wood hit the ground caught Kyuubi's attention. Seeing the tears well up in his eyes, Kyuubi instantly knew that the mysterious pain from before was back and he still could not do anything for his friend. But that still did not stop him from trying; dropping the wood he had been carrying, the little fox had run over to the blond's side and began to purr gently and rub up against the boy, trying to divert his attention to something else. It was not working.

Naruto, for his part, heard and felt Kyuubi trying his best to comfort him, but he could not even open his eyes and give the fox a slight painful grin, for the pain in his head hurt way too much. It seemed as if the last attack had been child's play compared to this one. It hurt beyond anything he could describe, and it seemed to be getting worse by the second. At the time, his brain did not even register that Kyuubi had long since stopped purring and rubbing up against him, but it did register the some of someone calling his name.

Suddenly, as if someone had doused the fire, that seemed to be his brain at the moment, in a lake of ice water, the pain was gone. The blond opened his eyes to find a blurry image leaning over the top of him, calling out his name. When had he fallen down? He did not know, but at the moment all his mind wanted to do was shut down. Which it did, but not before trying to reassure the person who stopped the pain.

"Ha-ak-ku-ni-i-ch-an…"

* * *

Okay, not one of my best chapters, but I don't think it was one of my worst either, so I say it was a pretty good try, for having no idea how to come out the way I needed it to be for later chapters. I think I've got some more of the plot line figured out and I won't be introducing Konoha and the people living there for a few more chapters. Hopefully I can get to come out right... 

Thanks again for those that do review, since they give me more insperation for the story line and new chapters come out faster for I don't like to disappoint my reads.

Edited 2/3/2008

Shi no Tenshi 902


	6. Death Comes to All, Even Immortals

My life sucks at the moment...Sorry this is late I meant to have it finished last weekend, but I've had to write an essay and haven't gotten much sleep becuase of it or free time to write my fanfict. SO I hope you all like this and be warned it's not beta-ed because I wanted to get it out as soon as I could. Now onward!

* * *

Hoshi did not know what was up with her two grandsons, but she wanted to find out. Last night, after she had sent the two boys out to gather some wood and water, Hoshi began to make a fire with what wood she did have. During that time she did not notice when her youngest grandson, who was supposed to stay insight around the camp, wondered further into the forest with his pet fox. However, she soon realized her mistake when her oldest grandson came back with the water and Naruto and Kyuubi where no where to be found. Hoshi had wanted to search for the blond herself at the time, but Haku convinced her that he could find him just as easily and the blond had just wondered off by mistake and there was nothing to worry about. So Haku had left the campsite and he worries were put to rest, knowing that Haku was probably right. 

Though her worries were soon rekindled when the brunette had come back into the campsite with Kyuubi at his heels, the fox carrying a few sticks in his mouth, and a very pale, worn out, unconscious Naruto being half dragged, half carried by Haku. She had immediately rush over to them and checked Naruto over while asking what had happen to the boy, but Haku had said he did not know. Now, as the small family continued their camping trip, even thought Hoshi had insisted they head back to town to get Naruto check over by a med-nin and the blond protesting greatly, and won, the small family was unusually quiet. Naruto was not running in front of the group with Kyuubi at his heels yipping all the way nor was Haku and Naruto chattering happily away with one another. Instead the family just continued to walk in silence for the rest of the day.

When it came time for the camp to be set up camp, Hoshi made sure Naruto took a small nap while Haku and her set up camp and got everything ready for dinner, because the blond seemed pale. Much to her disappointment, the blond did not argue with her about taking a nap, which in itself was a sure sign that there was something wrong. Maybe she should rethink not turning around and going back to get Naruto checkout by a med-nin, but it would also break his heart at the same time, since Naruto had been looking forward to this trip ever since she had told him and Haku about it. Though Naruto's health was more important to her than breaking his heart over a camping trip and they could always go on another trip later, Hoshi decided first thing in the morning they would be heading back to town. To bad that would never happen.

That night, as everyone sleep, Naruto woke up, in a sense that is. Crawling out of the tent he shared with Haku and Kyuubi, Naruto started walking toward the forest as silently as was possible that he did not wake Haku nor Hoshi up. Unfortunately, Kyuubi was a whole other matter. As soon as Naruto had even shifted the tent's opening, Kyuubi was wide awake and following the blond. Catching up to him was easy and Kyuubi began to yip and bark at the blond to go back to bed. However, when the little kitsune saw the blond's eyes, he immediately turned on his heels and ran back inside of the tent, making as much noise as possible in the process. Which had Haku awake in no time.

"Kyuubi be quiet and go back to sleep," the brunet scolded the kitsune sleepily as he tried to fall back asleep, not noticing Naruto's presences had disappeared from the tent completely. Not discourage by the display, Kyuubi began to bite the blanket he shared with Naruto and pull it off of the sleepy boy. This received more of an affect than the barking and yipping did. Shooting upright, Haku tried to regain the blanket from the fox while chastising him at the same time. "Kyuubi Knock It Off And Go-"

The brunet's rants were cut off when he realized that there was something not right about this situation and it only took him a second to figure out what. Scrabbling to his feet, Haku made hast. Once outside of the tent, with Kyuubi already yipping and barking at him to hurry up, even if he could understand what the fox was barking at, Haku began to search for Naruto. Though, no sooner had he stepped outside of the tent, had Hoshi stuck her head outside of her tent to see what all the commotion was about.

"What's going on?" Hoshi asked slightly sleepily.

"Naruto's gone," was all that was said before Hoshi was wide awake and already outside of her tent.

"Where did he go?" Hoshi asked worriedly, looking around there area for her blond haired grandson, but not finding a single trace of him there. She mentally cursed the boy for learning how to hide his presences so well, when only a mere few months ago she was mentally praising him for that fact. And for Kami-sama's sake, the boy was wearing bright orange for that matter!

"I don't know, Kyuubi woke me up barking and he was already gone," Haku explained as he looked over to the fox as Hoshi did as well. Finally seeing that both the human's attention was on him, Kyuubi quickly turned around and ran into the forest to where he knew Naruto was headed, since he could smell his scent. Seeing the fox run into the forest suddenly, Hoshi and Haku glanced at each other briefly before giving chase. Following the fox into the forest, they found themselves already a quarter of a mile away from camp and still running after the fox with no signs of Kyuubi slowing down what so ever. After another quarter of a mile the fox finally slowed down and looking ahead of the fox they saw why.

Slowly walking towards the west was Naruto.

"Naruto what do you think you're doing? You had us all worried walking away like that!" Hoshi scolded the blond as she and Haku headed him off and stopped him from advancing forward. The old woman was going to say more when she caught sight of the boy's eyes and gasped. "Oh Kami-sama."

The same reaction came form Haku when he saw the sight of his younger brother's eyes. Naruto's eyes were glazed over as if a veil of some type was placed over his eyes obstruction his view of the world around him, but that is not what made them both gasp. The color of Naruto's eyes themselves had changed to a black abyss, that was what caused them to gasp. However, both gasp were from different reasons; Haku had gasped because the sight itself shocked him, but Hoshi had gasped because what the sight of the ways his eyes looked meant.

Hoshi had seen eye just like that before and knew what was going on. When she was still an ANBU she had encountered around half a dozen people that had those eyes on one particular mission. And as the mission progressed, she had found out what the eyes meant. It meant that there was a Raibu by, but she thought that the Raibu clan was destroyed once they all became missing-nins after that one mission. The Raibu clan had become missing-nins because of what they had done with their bloodline limit, a bloodline limit that allowed the Raibu's to manipulate ones mind. In ways it was like the Yamanakas', but in ways it was not.

The Yamanakas' abilities let them leave their own mind and control another person, but the Raibus' bloodline limit let them hypnosis other for lack of a better describtion. They could control one with their mind and shift memories around so they could not remember them or if they were really good with their kekkei genkai they could erase old memories and make new false ones in there place. Yet they could not look at the other's memories at all, that's where they differ from Yamanakas' bloodline limit, though the Yamanakas' could not make slaves of people like the Raibus could. With so much power over the minds of others, the Raibu clan became corrupt and began do things to gain power for themselves. They were one of the reasons why Water Country started to fear everyone with a bloodline limit and so many children where murdered when they found out they had bloodline limits thanks to the Raibus. Thankfully Konoha shinobis had dealt with all of the Raibu clan, or so had Hoshi thought.

"Raibu, come on out here, I know you're there," Hoshi shouted out as she gathered Naruto into her arms to stop him from going anywhere else while he was under the mysterious Raibu's control and began to summon an ice jutsu. While on her mission involving the Raibu clan, Hoshi had found out the only way to counter their bloodline was to give the person's brain a chill of sorts, a brainfreeze in other words, since the Raibu's bloodline was sort of like over heating their brain and manipulating it that way. Naruto's eyes flickered for a second before they returned to normal, leaving the blond confused and his head in a world of pain. He was going to ask what was going on and how did they get all the way out here when another voice called out.

"Ah, what a pleasant little surprise, a Konoha shinobi, even better yet an old _Konoha Kunoichi_," the voice spat the last part of his sentence out like bile as two men jumped down from the treetops. "And here I thought I'd only get revenge on that little punk," the man continued, pointing a finger at Naruto, "for ruining my friend and mine's perfect meal ticket."

"You, I know you," Naruto exclaimed, "your that katana man and the wound through the stomach guy! You're the two guys trying to scam the villagers!"

"Naruto, you know these guys?" Hoshi asked her grandson concernedly. When the boy diverted his eyes and would not face her, she knew something was up. "What happened Naruto?"

"Yes, _Naruto_, tell the old bat how you ruined our bartering with the villagers of Wave and how you got us kicked out of the caravan we were traveling with," katana man, now identified as a member of the Raibu clan, sneered.

"That's not true," the blond denied apprehensively, "they were scamming the villagers with false promises and laid claim that they held a genuine phoenix feather! The caused the crowd to break into chaos!" Naruto told his grandmother truthfully, looking her in the eyes as he told her what really happened, by doing so Hoshi knew that he was not lying and was telling her the truth. He also decided in his head that Hoshi did not need to know that he got hurt during that time either, so he purposely failed to mention that very fact.

"I believe you," Hoshi said looking the boy into the eyes and noticed that his eyes brightened at the comment, since he was not sure what Hoshi's reaction to the truth would be. Though the brightness of his eyes did not last long before the boy gripped his head screaming in pain.

"Ah, what a touching family moment," the Raibu's partner spoke for the first time, since his partner was busy shattering Naruto's mind, with a sweat and kind voice, before it turned into deride, "to bad I hate family moments."

"Why you assho-" the elder retired Konohagakure shinobi started, looking up towards the man as she started to call up another ice jutsu to neutralize the affect of the Raibu's bloodline, but stopped mid sentence.

"Grandma," Haku spoke weakly as he clawed at the forearm wrapped tightly around his neck almost cutting off all of his air. His feet dangling a few feet above the ground and the man, that had just spoken, held a kunai at the head. The Raibu was on the other side of him with a malicious grin on his face and a little sweet broke around his face as he kept his eyes trained on the blond boy in her arms that was in pain.

"I wouldn't do anything if I were you, Kunoichi-san," the mad spoke again as he pressed the blade closer to Haku. "You see, either way you're screwed, because if you try to save your brunet grandson, my partner will kill the your blond grandson with the his bloodline in the most painful ways imaginable. Yet if you even try to call up any kind of jutsu to counter his bloodline or other wise, I'll stab the brunet with my kunai. And here's the best part about it, my kunai is coated in a poison that is meant to kill its victims slowly and painfully. However, if you do nothing, both your grandsons will be killed. So make your choice, what grandson is more important to you, the blond or the brunet? Me, I'm partially to the brunet, the blond's just a runt."

"Shut up fuc-"

"Aw-aw-ah," the man said pressing the kunai right against Haku's skin, but not enough to break the skin, "we'll have none of that now. Besides your grandchildren are present and we wouldn't want to teach them bad habits now, would we?"

Hoshi let out a growl of annoyance as she watched the blade be pulled back slightly, but not enough for her to try anything and get there in time to save Haku, but even if she did successes than Naruto would die. And if she tried to save Naruto, Haku would die, which she did not want to happen either, even if she had known the blond longer than the brunet, she could never decide between the two. They were her family and she would not do anything to risk their lives, but if she did not do anything soon they would both die. Just looking at the whimpering blond in her arms proved that. It did not look like the blond could hold out much longer with someone pounding on his head and trying to shatter his psychological state of mind. Bowing her head low, Hoshi did something that everyone that knew her would be shocked to see her doing.

"Please, please I beg of you not to hurt them," Hoshi whispered, but being shinobi, the other two men heard it. Lifting her head, the elder woman had tear stains running down her face as she looked the man holding Haku in the eyes. "Please, I'll do anything, just, don't hurt them."

Seeing the Konoha kunoichi began like that, something inside of the man seemed to flicker to life. To see such a high and might Konoha kunoichi like the one before him, no matter how old she was, plead with him seemed to bring something to life within him. Only once before had this happened to him and it did not turn out to good when he filed it in with his mission report, the whole town was furious at him for doing such a thing. Though he did not care, for a few days later he had become a missing-nin and did not have to worry about what others thought about him anymore. A barely noticeable gleam was seem in his eye by only his partner, who stiffened upon seeing it.

"Kyo," his partner said warningly, "we don't need anything to happen-"

"Shut up Raibu," the man, now identified as Kyo, said with a harsh voice. "A little bloodbath wouldn't be all that bad-"

The two men continued to argue over this new idea, not hearing the gasp of surprise come from Hoshi at their idea of a bloodbath, since she knew just whose blood it was going to be. Hearing what they were talking about just renewed Hoshi's will to fight as she began to analyze all the variables and tried to formulate a plan. Quickly she scanned the area, trying to find anything that could help her in anyway, but came up empty handed in that department. Next she took into consideration the enemies weaknesses and strengths, but if she tried anything directly relating towards them, than one of her grandsons would surely die, plus time was running out for Naruto.

"Ky'bi, 'ite," the words were said weakly and unclear, but the meaning was not lost on the red little fox's ears. For as soon as the words left the boy's mouth, the chibi kitsune, gone unnoticed until this very moment, jumped onto Kyo, latching his teeth around the wrist holding the kunai. Not being to do anything while holding the brunet, since shaking his arm only successes in the fox biting deeper into his wrist, Kyo let the boy go and grabbed the fox with his now free hand. Yet before he could do anything to Kyuubi, senbon were thrown and hit his hand causing him to release the fox immediately, yet Kyo did not know it was Haku that threw the deadly needles and thought it to be Hoshi's doing.

While this was going on, Hoshi hurried up and preformed a ice jutsu to counter act the Raibu's bloodline once again. As soon as the pain was gone, Naruto gave a small smile at his grandmother, before passing out form fatigue, he was safe, for now. But countering the Raibu's bloodline and being out of danger were two different things as was soon notice as the Raibu came up behind Hoshi and tried a surprise attack. Dodging the sneak attack, she was not an ex-ANBU for nothing, Hoshi threw a handful of shuriken at the Raibu, all hitting him dead center, killing him instantly, as she carried Naruto with one arm.

"Worthless, that's what all the Raibu's were. Nothing, but worthless shinobi without their bloodline," Hoshi spat, but did not waste her time on him. Instead, Hoshi carefully deposited Naruto up against a tree and went to fight the other man, who was currently being distracted by Haku and Kyuubi. "Haku, Kyuubi, go take care of Naruto, I'll take care of this guy."

The two did not give the slightest ounce of disagreement, knowing when they were out numbered when it came. The two just nodded their heads and ran over to Naruto to make sure he was alright and checked him over for any further injures. Hoshi quickly took over fighting Kyo instantly with a rather well placed Suiton: Suiryudan followed by a Doton: Doryudan. Both of them making direct hits and it looked like everything was all over before it could truly begin. One would be sadly mistaken though, as soon as the two attacks were finished, one of Kyo's own was sent out, but this one was not like Hoshi's at all. Kyo's jutsu was one of a clear almost unnoticeable mist that put one to sleep if they did not realize what was going on in time. Which is what it did to both Haku and Kyuubi, but since Naruto was already unconscious nothing happened to him.

Hoshi on the other hand, knew exactly what was going on the moment the air became even the slightest bit thicker. Forming the right seals with a 'kai' and everything, Hoshi looked around for Kyo, since she lost sight of him after her two attacks on him. Not seeing him with her eyes, she let her other senses try and find him. Though since she was not part of the Inuzuka clan her sense of smell was all the only option she was left with other than her sense of hearing and since she was always better at listening to what was going on around her, Hoshi decided to use the latter of the two options left. Listening, a small, almost unnoticeable, snapping sound and the parting of the air gave away the position of the enemy behind her. Grabbing one of her shurikens, Hoshi whirled around on the heel of her foot and threw the shuriken at the unsuspecting ninja.

"Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," Hoshi yelled as her one shuriken multiplied a hundred folds. The ill prepared ninja, stunned that she had found him so easily in her old age, managed to dodge most of the shuriken, but one cut him on the cheek and a line of blood slid down his face. Landing on the other side of the clearing away from Hoshi, Kyo whipped the blood off of his face and looked at it. Seeing his own blood drew out his bloodlust even further and an insane grin formed on his face. Licking the blood off of his fingers with a sick delight, Hoshi's blood curled at the very sight.

"You'll wish you'd never of done that," with that said the insane man disappeared from sight, and this time Kyo did not underestimate the old woman's abilities. Looking around for the man, Hoshi's instincts went on high alert, the elder woman tensed up when she could not find any trace of the man. Slowly she began to turn around in circles, making sure not to miss anything and be taken by surprise, but it did not turn out that way. Hearing a snap, Hoshi swiftly turned around, only to have a jutsu hit her full force on the back.

"Suiton: Bakusui Shōha."

The water threw her up against a near by tree, only a few feet away from her grandsons. Sliding down on to the ground like a limp puppet, Hoshi could see her two grandsons sleeping and she noticed Naruto was not breathing properly, but in short shallow gasps. Gathering her strength, Hoshi tried to push herself up, but her body complained at every movement. She was not like she used to be and her old body could not take a direct hint and pulling herself back up, like when she was twenty years younger, as if nothing had happen. Though when she was almost on her knees, a foot shoved her back down harshly, before kicking her. Rolling from the force of the kick, Hoshi stopped on her side facing Kyo as he walked slowly toward her.

"I told you, you'd wish you'd never cut me," Kyo laugh cynically as he drew a single kunai and casually kneeled in front of Hoshi. "I hope you had a good life, cause it's over _now_!"

Saying his final word, Kyo stabbed the kunai right in the head and watched in a sick satisfaction as the elder woman bleed out and her eyes dimmed till there was no life inside of the old woman. Even then he, stood up and kicked the corpse one more time. Dusting off his clothes, the man began to walk away from the clearing, but stopped. Turning around, Kyo walked back towards Hoshi, but completely passed her and keep on walking until he stopped in front of the two boys. Looking down at them, a sinister smirk formed.

"Wouldn't these two make a good meal ticket?" he asked himself.

* * *

The Inari twins slowly walked towards the designated meeting place, their foxes walking by their feet were not yipping and yelping dancing around happily like they usually would. No, they were solemn as they walked with a dignified matter. The twins themselves were in their real form, the form they were in when they first meet Naruto, and walked like royalty. There was no smiles nor happy expressions on their faces, but an emotionless expression and hardened features. Coming to the meeting place, the twins stopped and their foxes sat obediently at their feet, two on either side of the twins. 

The meeting place was not one that could be accessed by any mortal, no matter what. It was the world of the gods and it was their world like Earth was the world for the mortals. Here on the gods' world, everything was almost the exact same as on Earth, but different too. There were animals, but ones of myths and legions and the plant were the same way, some not of any known species know to man at all. Colors not even seen on Earth filled their world and made everything look surreal. And standing there, waiting for the twins, was none other than the one that had caused Kyuubi to go wild and attack Konoha all those years ago. Quetzalcoatl, the god of snakes.

However, Quetzalcoatl was not looking like he usually did. His usually vivid yellow eyes were dull and almost lifeless looking and his snake like skin peeling and sickly looking. His usually ugly gray hair looked even uglier and had some patches missing from his skull. His clothes, that once looked like the skin of an anaconda, was all but rags now and black blood was dripping from him. His whole appearance made the twins wonder what this was all about.

"Quetzalcoatl, what happened to you?" Inari asked her and her brother's rival in sorts, even if they truly loathed one another and they were more like enemies than rivals.

"I made a huge mistake," Quetzalcoatl started and one of the twins tried to interrupt him, but the snake god did not give either of them anytime to do so. "As both of you know I had chosen my Chosen One back when Philyra did and I trained him and taught him everything I knew. Well I made a mistake, even though I tried to kill you and your foxes in the past would you two help me?"

"And why should my sister and I help you?" Inari asked with a stoic face, even though both of the twins were very surprised that the one that had loathed them as long as they could remember, which was a really long time, was now all but pleading for their help.

"Because, my Chosen One was the one to kill Philyra!" Quetzalcoatl shouted at the same time his energy flared up and lashed out violently.

"Nani?!"

"My Chosen One was the one to kill Philyra and take her power and I was never aware of this fact. He did it behind my back and when he confronted me about it, I lashed out at him for doing so. He didn't seem to even care and fought back, he was the one to do this to me," the snake god hissed out his rage.

"Why don't you take care of it? You made the monster, you take care of it," Inari spat anger getting to her. Philyra had been her friend and when she was killed it had hurt her deeply, even more when no one could find out who had killed the goddess known for her healing skills. Then this pathetic excuses for a god had been the one to train the one that killed her friend and now was asking them to clean up his mistake? She would not do it, even if she could get revenge for Philyra, she would never do such a thing like that. Both her and her brother knew that revenge was not everything and did not dwell in the past, but looked towards the future.

"I have to agree with my sister on this one," her brother backed her up. "For the only way to kill one of us is to have an kami's blood run through one's veins and you were the only one able to give your Chosen One the blood of a kami, if I'm not mistaken, because who else but you could have given him the blood of a kami? You made the mess, you clean it up."

Seeing that Quetzalcoatl was now contemplating what the two had said, the twins turned around and began to depart with their foxes on their heels. Both had a glum look on their faces at what they learned, but they would not do anything for revenge, it was not their way.

"I _Can't _clean up my mess, because I'm _Dying_!" Quetzalcoatl finally shouted after the two twins and their foxes. Spinning around, the twins looked at the man in disbelief and horror. Seeing that he had their attention once again, Quetzalcoatl continued in the same soft voice that he had been using earlier. "I loved Philyra and I tried to kill my own Chosen One for the crime he committed, but he got the best of me and poisoned me. I'm dying because of him. I'm pleading with both of you to listen to me and clean up my own mess, as you so kindly put it, for me, since I won't be alive for very much longer. This is my way of cleaning up my mess, by finding someone to take care of the problem and right the wrongs I have done even when I'm gone and dead. So please help me."

Looking at her brother and getting his approval, Inari turn back to Quetzalcoatl. "Fine, we'll help you, but you have to tell us everything."

"Deal."

The next few hours were spent telling all that Quetzalcoatl knew about his Chosen One that would help the twins defeat them out in defeating said Chosen One, since he could not do it himself. Though, neither of the Inari twins could, because of the law that no god could kill another god's Chosen One, only the god that had chosen the human could kill their Chosen One, but it never mentioned anything about how Chosen One could not kill another Chosen One. Even if both of the Inaris thought that it was not a good idea for them to even teach Naruto to kill Quetzalcoatl's Chosen One, they still agreed to help him. If it came down to it, the twins would rather preserve Naruto's innocence than have him kill and hopefully Quetzalcoatl's Chosen One would die from old age or some deadly decease before it ever came down to Naruto killing him.

"I have one question," Inari said and when Quetzalcoatl inclined his head towards her to show her that he was listening, she continued. "Why did you ask for our help and not someone better suited for the job?"

Quetzalcoatl seemed to wince at the question itself. "Because, my Chosen One's next target is a Pure One and-"

"And the only Pure One that has been found as of recently is-" Inari continued for Quetzalcoatl before his sister cut him off as he had done to Quetzalcoatl.

"Naruto."

"Yes, but he won't attack him for awhile, since he doesn't know where, or who for that matter, your Chosen One is," the snake god told the, now, two worried twins. "He will just be blindly looking for your Chosen One by the pureness of the boy's chakra, which will take him a while to do."

"But he will still be able to find Chibi One in only a year or so, if he has been trained as good as you said. Chibi One will stand out in a crowd since he is a Pure One and his chakra is purer than any other Pure One that I have ever known," the fox god pondered out loud, though from the horrified look that his sister was giving him, it was not such a good idea to say it out loud.

"There's got to be something we can do for him," fox goddess all but pleaded.

"There might be," Quetzalcoatl mused out loud gaining all of the foxes' attention. "You could either bind your Chosen One's powers as a Pure One-"

"But that would be like binding one's personality, we can't do that!" the fox goddess denied.

"-or you could make him your Heir," the snake god continued as if Inari hadn't interrupted.

"What is an Heir?" the twins asked together, causing Quetzalcoatl to roll his eyes and mumble something about young inexperienced gods and not knowing things that every other god knew. And for a moment the twins gods thought he was talking about them, but brushed it off as something that Quetzalcoatl would say just to confuse them.

"Do you two even know about the true reason why one god, or two in your case, chose a mortal as their Choosen One? It is so that they can give them the powers of a kami in a special ceremony so if anything happens to the god or goddess, there is someone to take their place. However, their Choosen One wouldn't become a kami, they would be come a demigod," the snake god explained to the two 'inexperienced' gods. "Doing this gives the newly demigod some perks, for they can hide their chakra completely like a god can or even change it. Though after time, if the demigod proves himself or lives long enough, the become a kami like the rest of us in order to truly take over for the god or goddess that chose them."

"I think that I like that idea less than the first one," the fox goddess spoke, causing the two gods to look at her confusedly. She sighed, the male population was clueless. "Chibi One's only real dream is to meet his real father once again and make him proud of him. If we make him a demigod, it will crush him. If what you say is true, then he will come join us in our world and will never be about to see his father again for he is a moral and Chibi One will be a kami like us."

"Than we'll just have to leave well enough alone and see what happens, since both choices are out of the question," Inari told his sister agreeing with her before they feel into an uncomfortable silence. The goddess just nodded her head and wished that there was another way to save their young Chosen One, but there was no other way. They could not bind his powers, for just as she had said before hand, it was like binding one's personality for the one being bind would feel like they had lost apart of themselves and feel empty. That left the other option, but that was completely out of the question, because it would crush him to break his dream and he would be leaving his newly acquired brother behind and they both knew that he could not do that either.

"There might be another way," Quetzalcoatl spoke up, catching the twins attention and causing them to stare at the snake god contently. For his part, Quetzalcoatl could almost feel a bead of sweet roll down the back of his head, but he continued anyways. "In times long past, before any one of the Great Shinobi Wars began or were even in the beginning stages of a conflict, the first of the Pure Ones were found, but not by any god or goddess, but by Kami-sama himself. Now the first Pure One was a girl that didn't have any powers at first, but she gained them by the grace of Kami-sama himself after many good deeds. Later, when the girl grew into a fine young woman, she fell in love with a simple farmer boy from a village and left her place with Kami-sama to be with him. For many years they lived together in harmony, but disaster struck the couple and struck hard.

"The village she and her lover lived in was attacked one day by a greedy lord that wanted their land to gain more of his own wealth. That day many people died defending their home village. The Pure One of the time tried her best to help her village, but even with all of her pure powers, she was weak up against trained soldiers. Still, that didn't stop her from giving up, she still fought with all of her might, yet things were looking grim for the villagers, they were no match for well trained soldiers and didn't stand a chance against them. Even hope couldn't help these people, but when all hope seemed lost for them, the unthinkable happened.

"The Pure One found her lover, beheaded on the battlefield, and seeing her lover's body mutilated in such a way caused something inside of her to break into a million little pieces. That was the night the first Tenshi was born, or so the myth has it. The Pure One grew wings of a pure white bird, later to be known as angel wings, and wiped out the greed lord's soldiers. Yet though she was victorious against the intruding armies, the Pure One was devastated, her lover was dead and she mourned for her loss. That night the first Pure One disappeared by taking to the skies and flying away, yet not to be unheard of.

"Over a century later, the first Pure One returned only to be seen by another Pure One who had lost everything as well and grated her wings to fly upon and join her. Occurrences as such continued to happen until the us gods and goddesses started to pick Pure Ones as our Chosen Ones and that's when the myth disappeared from Earth and even our own world, along with the Pure Ones that had become Tenshi like her and their auras and chakra signatures disappeared from existence. If the myth is true, it means that if your Pure One, if he becomes a Tenshi, then he maybe safe from my Chosen One, because his aura and chakra signature will disappear and my Chosen One won't be able to find your Chosen One."

"How does a Pure One become a Tenshi anyways?" the fox goddess asked, like the sound of this solution better than any of the others, even though she was not completely sure what a Tenshi was, because even to their world angels were even a myth, but if it meant Chibi One would stay on Earth and keep his dream, than she would do it.

"The truth is, I don't know."

* * *

Don't like this chapter, I killed of Uzumaki Hoshi and I totally suck at fighting scene.

Thank you all who reviewed, it made me want to get this finished for those of you who actually reviewed sooner. To anyone that doesn't review, I'm glade you read my story, but you make me not want to finish it because I think that if you don't review it wasn't worth your time for reading, which I really hope isn't the case. If it is, then just don't read my story.

To _**Lost ninja #1**_: I liked your name suggustion and used it so thank you very much .

To **_Moonlight black rose_**: Thank you for your suggustions on what to name my story, but someone already beat you to it, but I really thank you for trying (since you were one of the only two that did.)

And to show my thanks to both **_Lost ninja #1 _**and **_Moonlight black rose _**I dedicate this chapter to both of you. THANKS FOR YOUR HELP AND REVIEWS!!! (I feel loved .")

Oh, and to **_tenshineechan _**I would really like you to beta for me, cause I really need it, if you're still willing to PM (or review what ever works the best for you) please.

Edited 2/3/2008

Shi no Tenshi 902


	7. Sand Poor

Did I ever tell you I hate my life? Sorry for the long wait for the undate, but me english teacher has decided to tourch us more by giving us an essay a week to write and I haven't had much time to do anything else seeing as the essays, plus all my other homework, has been ganging up on me. Stupid teachers... Anyways, like always, I still haven't found an beta, so it's not beta-ed, so please be nice, I know I suck at writing, but I do it for fun anyways.

* * *

The sun was high in the sky, its heat burning down on the white hot desert sand. The rays were so hot that anyone could see them with their bare eyes. Not a drop of water was seen for miles around, excluding the sweat pouring off of any person dumb enough to walk through the desert at this time of day. Without any water around, no clouds were able to form, and with no clouds to cast shadows onto the desert sands, there was no shade to catch relief from the sun. With no water, there were also no plants to grow for food, another horrible thing about the desert for anyone trying to hide out there. However, in the middle of this barren desert was a village and not just any village, but a shinobi village. The village Hidden in the Sand, Sunagakure. 

Sunagakure was a very dangerous hidden village, and its location was just perfect for it. If the long trek through the desert and its heat did not kill any enemies, then the Suna shinobi would. From a young age the people of Sand, shinobi and villagers alike, were taught to live in the desert without any complaint about the heat or their small reserve of food and water. This was why Sunagakure was renowned for their shinobi when it came to doing long term missions. Their shinobi could go days with no food and very little water and still be able to work effectively. They did not need to stop for anything, other than sleep, and the only thing that bothered them was rainy climate, since they lived in a hot desert all their life and there was next to no rain, they really could not handle the watery droplets from the sky.

There was something else special about the Suna shinobi that only the people of Sunagakure knew. More specifically, there was one special thing about one of the Kazekage's children that only the people of Sand knew. As of the past few years, Sunagakure was not doing well at all, their village's economy was dropping. The lord that supplied them with their water and food stopped providing them with money and started to slowly diminish the amount they sent until they were no longer sending Suna anything. The village started to hurt for money and hurt bad. So to make his village prosperous once more, the Kazekage used the newly developing child in his wife's womb as a container for the Ichi no Tanuki, otherwise known as Suna no Shukaku. At first, this was done merely to gain back the respect and power that was lost, but something inside the Kazekage changed when his wife died giving birth to his son. Instead of making his new son a respectable shinobi of Sunagakure, the Kazekage decided to make him a weapon of destruction.

It had been five years since the Kazekage's wife died giving birth to Gaara, the youngest of the Kazekage's children, and the Kazekage realized that his perfect weapon was not so perfect after all, so he started trying to assassinate him. The young child of five was hated throughout the village but more so feared for what he held inside of him and the sands he controlled. People felt as though he was not just the container but the demon himself. His looked did not help him in that matter at all. Blood red hair was not exactly something that could be called natural, even if the Kazekage had the same color of hair, and green eyes of an unearthly color surrounded by black circles, from being an insomniac, added to his demonic looks. Yet he still had the face of a child, and no one seemed to be interested in that fact.

Not even his older brother and sister seemed to care for him, which is why at a young age he had taken to wandering the streets looking for something, anything that could make the little redhead feel like everyone else in the village. Yet it seemed like nothing ever went right for the boy, which was proven today when he retrieved a red ball for some other children his age with his sands, and all they did was run away from him in fear. He had almost killed the children by accident. Thankfully, his uncle stopped him from doing so, but that left him with another question. What was pain? What did it feel like?

His sands had always stopped him from being hurt, and he wanted to know what pain felt like. Yet when he tried to cut himself with a knife, his sands and his uncle stopped him. At that moment, he felt like he was a normal boy getting advice form a relative, but something seemed wrong to him after he had spoken with his uncle. Something did not settle well with him, and to figure it out why, Gaara decided to walk around the village to clear his head so he could think without any interference. Still, it was very hard to clear one's head, or even think straight, when one could just feel the hatred and glares directed towards them.

Wandering around for more than two hours, attempting to ignore the glares sent his way, Gaara finally gave up trying to figure out what his uneasy feeling towards his uncle had been and opted to go get something to eat. However, that turned into a mission in itself. Trying to find a place that would let him in and not scorn him while he ate there in peace was a problem. Place after place would either ignore his existence entirely until he left, or the braver of the few places he visited would refuse him at the door before he could even walk in. After the fifth turn down, and the seventh place that ignored his existence, Gaara came across something that was not such an odd occurrence in Suna anymore.

Three cages filled with children were sent up in the slums of Suna, and men carrying a variety of weapons were on guard near the entrances of each cage. The men were big and greasy looking, and one could tell they were not shinobi but regular thugs by their outer appearance. However, the children inside the cages were even more ragged looking than their guards. Most, if not all, of the children were emaciated, though whether it was because of starvation or sickness could not be determined. Their clothes were covered in dried dirt and blood and had rips and tears in them everywhere. Some children did not even have the pleasure of wearing any clothing.

This was the slave trade, and before Suna's economy hit rock bottom, the selling of one human to another was not allowed in any village. However, once their economy did hit rock bottom, Suna became a breeding ground for illegal things such as slave trading and black-market goods. Many of the people of Suna frowned upon such activities in their town, but they turned their heads at the occurrences and looked the other way, just as the Kazekage did. Even if they frowned upon such dealings, the illegal trade brought some money back into Suna. They turned their heads away in the same fashion as when someone was treating Gaara badly in a public area.

Still, that was not what caught the young redhead's attention. What did catch Gaara's interest was a small group standing outside the second cage. Two of the slave traders were trying to get one of their slaves, what looked to be a boy around his age, to go along peacefully with the buyer, but the boy was not cooperating with them. Instead, he was standing protectively in front of a heap of a dark orange, almost brown, pile of clothing. It did not look like the boy was going to last very long. He seemed almost dead on his feet and was about to drop. The boy would not have to worry about that much longer, though, since the buyer appeared discouraged by his feistiness.

"I thought you said he was an obedient child," Gaara heard the buyer growled out at the two slave traders.

"But sir, the boy _is_ obedient. He is just overprotective of that runt of a brat. We'll give you the runt free of charge, and you can take them both home. The boy will go with you obediently that way, and you won't have to worry about feeding two new mouths. The runt is on the verge of death as it is," one of the traders bartered. The buyer seemed to think about this new deal and looked over the two boys with lust filled eyes. He was discouraged once again when the boy that was still standing glared at him with a foul, bitter look that spoke of defiance every step of the way.

"No," the buyer said simply, a chill running down his spine as he looked at the two boys once again and briefly locked eyes with the disobedient child.

"How about another one then?" the second slave trader asked, not wanting to lose a sale, and it seemed to work too. The buyer just nodded his head, and the trader led him away from the two while showing him other, more obedient, children that he would probably like for a new sex slave. While the buyer and the first trader walked away, Gaara watched the other slave trader walk purposefully towards the two boys. The one still standing leaned down and picked the one on the ground up. Upon seeing the first boy trying to carry the one on the ground, Gaara got a better look at the two boys.

The first boy, the one that was his age, had greasy, black hair that was a disaster from not being taken care of properly or washed in a long time it seemed. He wore a dirty, ragged fighting style kimono and had cuts and smudges all over his white skin. Even though he seemed to be defeated, the brunet's brown eyes still shone with an inner fire that was as cold as ice. The other boy, on the other hand, did not look as good as the brunet.

The boy did not seem to be even four years of age, and it looked as though he was about to die. At such a young age, it was a very depressing sight to see. Blond hair was slick with sweat and stuck to his face, but it was also matted with dried blood. What looked to have once been an orange jumpsuit was mangled beyond recognition, and he looked worse than the first boy when it came to cuts and smudges. This boy was even paler than the first, and with half lidded blue eyes and shallow, nearly non-existent breathing, it was a sure sign that this boy was sick, very sick.

Half carrying, half dragging the sick child, the older boy walked into the cage closest to Gaara with no help from the slave trader except for him opening the cage door and slamming it shut once the two were fully inside. In the cage, the brunet dragged the blond through the crowd of children to the farthest corner, away from the door of the cage, which was conveniently located closest to Gaara. Once there, the brunet laid the blond down on the cage floor very carefully and sat down on his knees before rearranging the younger boy's head on his lap. The blond then rolled his head over on the brunet's lap and opened unique blue eyes that locked with Gaara's own unearthly green ones.

Through their locked eyes, Gaara felt something, something that he had never felt before. It made him feel for the first time. It made him feel alive, but most importantly, it made him feel something that he had always wished to feel, it made him feel human. He could not explain it, but the boy's eyes were pure and innocent, even if they looked half dead. They also seemed as if they were giving Gaara the life he never had. They were reviving him from the death that he had never suffered, but hid. The death that slowly got to him every time a hateful glare, a loathing word, a sneer was thrown his way. The magic of the moment was lost, though, when some villager screaming disturbed him.

Rotating his head, Gaara saw a small blood red fox, the size of a newborn puppy, with golden eyes, carrying a small sack in its mouth as it ran away from an angry shop owner. The shopkeeper was screaming for someone to stop the fox, but no one did. Instead, the fox slipped through the crowd and lost the shop owner in the mass, but the fox did not lose Gaara, whose eyes were focused on it. Gaara watched as the fox slyly weaved in and out of the crowd, making sure it lost the shopkeeper, before it slipped into one of the slave cages. A slave cage that just happened to be the one that held the two boys in it that caught his attention.

Watching the fox, Gaara saw it trot right over to the sickly blond, who was now propped up against the bars in the corner; the brunet was nowhere to be seen. Shifting his eyes away from the fox and the blond, Gaara scanned the contents of the cage for the brunet. Spotting the boy near the cage's door with his hand sticking out, trying to grab hold of something like the rest of the children, the redhead wondered what they all were doing. That was when he caught sight of one of the guards of the cages shoving small plates, bowls, and pots of food into some of the children's hands while others did not get any. As one of the children that already had a plate started eating, Gaara felt as if he was going to puke even though he had nothing to eat himself, for the food that the children were eating looked like it had already been eaten and puked back up and they were still eating it.

Feeling a tug at his right pant leg, Gaara looked down to see the red fox kittling from earlier, standing right next to his leg looking up at him cutely. Seeing that he had gotten the boy's attention, the fox turned on its heels and trotted away but stopped once it realized the redhead was not following him. Turning back around, the red fox walked over to the boy and bit his pant leg again, this time tugging on it a little bit before Gaara stumbled forward. Letting go, the fox trotted off yet again, and this time Gaara followed him, though he only had to take a few steps forward before he was right in front of one of the cages.

Suddenly, a red object was in his direct line of vision and it startled the Suna boy, yet he quickly gained composure. Blinking a few times to clear his sight, Gaara finally focused in on what was in front of him and found it to be a simple red apple. Looking up, blue clashed with green yet again. This time, their locked eyes did not break because of a shopkeeper's scream but because the blond closed his eyes as he tilted his head and directed a small, genuine smile towards him. It was the first true smile Gaara had ever received in his short lifetime, and the blond boy was also offering him a gift. It may have been a simple apple, but it was the first gift he had ever received.

Smiling back at the boy with his own small grin that caused his eyes to closed, Gaara took the apple. Once the blond boy's hand was free, he reached up and traced Gaara's face in a soft, tender way. Though at first he had flinched away, thinking the small boy was going to hurt him, when the boy gave him a questioning look Gaara let him continue to trace his face. He was glad he did, since the boy's touch was kind and gentle, heaven compared to the hellish, rough grasps his father gave him as he was inspecting his _weapon. _Gaara closed his eyes to savor the soothing touch that he was sure to never feel again. He started when a gentle, but hot, sensation hit his forehead. Opening his eyes, he was greeted with those unique blue orbs and a white aura that surrounded him and the boy.

Even though the situation would have been scary to any other child, Gaara was not afraid for the sole reason that the exceptional blue eyes were not scared. Instead, they were smiling happily at him. Closing his eyes once again, Gaara let his mind drift off.

* * *

Gaara walked calmly down the streets of Suna as he made his way towards his house. It was still early evening, and he knew his siblings would still be out and about around the Kazekage Tower for another hour or so. His father and uncle would be taking care of important business till very late that night, yet he did not care. He just wanted to get to his house. Though it would appear that some higher power was against him doing so. It seemed as if everyone was trying to get to their homes for an early dinner today, and for once, they did not seem to notice that it was him they were pushing about in their hurry. Through all of the mayhem, Gaara had somehow ended up near the playground, which was made up of sand surprisingly. In the middle of the sand there was a field for different types of ballgames. The good thing about that was that it was a shortcut to his house. No, it was not his home, it was just a house that he stayed at. 

Walking across the sand, Gaara made his way slowly over the field, vaguely wondering if anyone would notice. Yet he thought better of it. He knew no one would notice. They could be looking straight at it and still would not notice because they never did pay attention to him. Sighing, Gaara slightly rubbed the sore skin on his forehead and smiled to himself. Even though it hurt a little, he liked his second gift from the blond boy with unique blue eyes. At first glance, anyone would mistake it for a tattoo of the kanji for love, but he knew better. He knew it was a seal, and a powerful one at that. It sealed away his demon, cutting off the connection that it used to torment him while leaving him the ability to draw on its power without any harm coming to him because of it. It would probably let him sleep peacefully at night, too.

"Are you grateful?"

"Yes," Gaara answered the female voice as he heard soft steps fall into pace beside him. Yet he did not bother to look, because he knew just who it was that walked beside him without fear. He could picture the twenty year old girl in his mind now. Dark green hair flowed freely to her shoulders, two strands framed her heart-shaped face with plump pink lips and a small nose attached, and light green eyes, the color of grass, shone clearly. A slight tan contrasted with the simple, pure white, ankle length dress she wore and the pure white angel wings on her back.

The girl had come to him in his dreams and told him that there was someone that he needed to meet, someone that would like him for who he was, and he believed her. He never questioned why she would only come to him in his dreams to tell him that he needed to meet this person and soon or else he would die. He just took it calmly. Though he was surprised that she was here, for the very first time, outside his dreams and talking to him, but he suspected it had something to do with the person he needed to meet and the boy with the unique color of blue eyes. Them being one in the same.

"He's not going to live much longer you know," the angel told the boy, but all she got in response was a "hn." She ignored it, though, since she knew how he was treated and that he really did not know how to interact with people because of it. "And what are you going to do about it?"

"Free him."

* * *

Haku was worry about Naruto, ever since that Kyo and the Raibu event happened the blond was not looking so good. But that was just the beginning of it all. The Kyo guy went and kidnapped him and Naruto, making things even worse since he would not get Naruto professional help at all. At first Haku had threatened him, saying that, when their grandmother caught up with them, he would be dead, and that seemed to have been the only thing giving him and Naruto any hope that they would survive. Haku would then continue on that, when their grandmother did catch up with them, they would be fine, and she would take them back home and get Naruto help. However, when Kyo bluntly told them that Hoshi was dead and was never coming to get them, everything went down hill. 

Naruto got worse. He became very sick, with what Haku did not know, and started to waste away. His body weight, which was already small for a child his age, seemed to be reduced by half, and he grew very pale. The blond grew weak and started to have problems walking when they crossed the desert with Kyo. They were dragged by the ropes that bound them to Kyo if they even tried to stop for a small break or to runaway. They were then thrown in these cages, ready to be sold, once they had crossed the desert and had had very little food since.

Kyuubi had tried to help them out by sneaking out between the bars and stealing what food he could for the two boys. Lately, though, Naruto had taken to not eating anything, causing him to grow even weaker. If he did not get help soon, Haku was afraid that what the slave traders said would be true, Naruto would die. He prayed to any god that was listening that it would not end up like that, but as of late, he was not quite so sure of Naruto's survival himself. Even the green haired angel in his dreams did not know if he would endure or not. He prayed with all his might that Naruto would live to see another day. Maybe the green eyed angel was correct. Maybe one of the gods would favor Naruto and breathe life back into him, and he would get better if anything really wrong were to happen to him.

If any god were to do that, it would be the Fox God, Inari, since Naruto took especially good care of one of his foxes. Inari was the God of Foxes after all and would reward those that tended to his foxes, or at least that was what the angel had said.

* * *

"Naruto…" Nothing. 

"Naruto…" A small twitch.

"Naruto…" Finally, a heavy eyelid opened up before its companion followed suit. Yet the rest of the boy's body did not move. It just lay there, taking in the dark abyss of the area surrounding around him. There was nothing as far as the eye could see; no trees, no birds, no land, no sky, no nothing. Just a dark void that encircled him, along with that soft, mother-like voice that called to him. "Do you know who I am, Naruto?"

Twisting his body, though it felt like he was moving in water while doing so, the blond saw the person that the motherly voice was coming from. The woman looked to be around her mid twenties and in her prime. She was very slender and cat-like in the way she moved. Long, silver hair, the color of moonlight, fell in waves down her back and stopped at her waist. Eyes the color of the night sky shone with a knowledge that came from years of experience, and pale skin made the woman as beautiful as the white angel wings on her back. Her clothing consisted of knee-length white skirt held up by a golden chain and a white tube top with only its right sleeve that stopped above her midriff.

Smiling, Naruto answered her. "You're a Pure One, like me, but you have already ascended to a Tenshi. Not only that; you're the first Pure One ever, as well as first Tenshi ever. You're Tama Shina."

"That's right, and do you know why I'm here Naruto?" Shina asked with a small smile on her face. At first the blond did not say anything, but keep quiet and looked in another direction. Smiling at him, the first Pure One, walked towards the boy and ruffled his hair. "It's okay if you don't know Naruto, I was just asking to see."

"You're here because I'm a Pure One," Naruto finally answered, turning his head and looking the angel woman straight in the eyes.

A little shocked that the boy actually did know why she was here, even if he was a Pure One, Shina just smiled at him. "That's right, and do you know a Pure One is?"

"They are people born with the knowledge of things that many with years of experience would never learn. Some are even born with the knowledge of events that will happen in the future," Naruto recited, as if it were his age or something that everyone knew, but he still spoke proudly.

"And that leads to why I am here once again, which is-"

"The knowledge of what I was born with," Naruto finished for Shina, surprising the angel even further. He was smart, even for a Pure One as it is, but that is why she knew that he was the one that would help save them all.

"And that knowledge is?" Shina egged the boy on.

"Of a destroyer, one who will annihilate mortals to try and gain immortally. One who wants to destroy all gods and goddesses alike for power, and to do so he must become immortal so that he can go to their lands to kill them. The Destroyer has already started, for he was once a Chosen One like me, but he has killed his own god and the god's secret love. He does not know the secret of immorality and will go about trying to gain it in a way that will never work. Though this gives others the time to prepare, it also gives him the time to construct his armies," the boy told the angel as his eyes became glazed over, and an emotionless voice told the tale that he had known since birth for the first time in his life. Turning his gaze towards Shina, the blond boy cocked his head to one side and looked her in the eyes again. "There's more, but I think that is what you wanted to hear Shina-sama."

"That's correct Naruto," Shina answered before she began to answer the unspoken question. "Since the gods and goddesses can't really interfere with the mortal realm, they use their Chosen Ones to act for them. But, as you know, the Destroyer -as you call him- has been killing off all the Chosen Ones he can find, and no god can pick another Chosen One for another millennium. As a result, there is no one to act for the gods, and with that the Destroyer might succeed. There is one way for the gods to win, though. A Pure One's power is said to be the strongest there is because of how innocent and pure they are. Yet, what the gods are asking is for a Pure One to fight and kill, and that can cause the Pure One to become tainted."

"But the only Pure One around is me. Since you and the other Tenshi have already ascended, you're technically not Pure Ones anymore. They want me to do this, right?" the boy said, with eyes still glazed over.

"That's correct, but it's your choice to make and no one else's," the angel told the boy, not wanting him to feel the pressure of the fate of the world resting on his shoulders and to say yes just to make everyone else happy. Though if he did not, the world would probably be destroyed. Not something you want to tell a three year old boy who already had a burden placed upon him that any grown man could not handle. Being a Chosen One was not easy, nor was being a Pure One, since they knew and saw things others would never even dream of.

The boy blinked, and when he opened his eyes again they were not glazed over anymore. A genuine smile spread across his face. "Death is just another stage of life. One must die to move on, and being a warrior will only help free those traded souls from their corrupted shells and giving them a fresh start."

Looking at Naruto, Shina noticed something that she was happy to see, for she knew that Naruto had accepted it, and she knew he would not be corrupted by the killing. He would keep his purity and innocence for a long time because he had a different outlook on life from any one else. He did not think that dying was a bad thing, just another stage in life. However, he was still against wrongful killings, killings for no reason. He would become a warrior, just like them, so that he may try to stop the killings, and if he had to kill himself, he would still come out untainted because of who he was and not what he was.

"You are truly strong, Naruto," Shina told the boy with a small smile on her face.

* * *

The twin fox gods and their foxes stood in silence over a newly dug grave denoted by a simple marker with a snake drawn on it. After a small prayer, the group began walking away from the grave. They walked and walked, not realizing where they were going, so lost in their own thoughts. Both gods were thinking about what they had just witness and learned and wondering how they would save their Chosen One from the same fate. The best idea was to have Chibi One become a Tenshi, but they did not know how to do so, so that was thrown out as of the moment. The next was to make him their Heir, which they could not do to the child as he would probably break from doing so. That left the binding of his powers, which they really did not want to do either, but it seemed that it was the only way. 

"It's sad to know that he was killed by his own Chosen One, don't you think?"

Snapping their heads towards the voice, the divine beings caught a glimpse of someone in the high reaches of the tree, but they could not quite make the person out. The person's smell gave them away to be a female, if the voice had not already, but that was it. They had never encountered a smell like hers before, and they knew every other god or goddess's scent. That meant that there was a mortal being in the immortal realm, how that was possible they did not quite understand themselves.

"Who are you?" Inari growled out as he prepared for any kind of attack, his sister doing the same thing. Oddly enough, the foxes were not getting ready for a fight, which went unnoticed by the two wary gods.

"Do all gods forget that easily, or is it just you two?" the mysterious female asked, confusing the two greatly. They had never met this female before, or they would have remembered her scent. "I mean, come on, Quetzalcoatl just told you about me, though I don't think he told the two of you my name. Let me introduce myself properly. I'm Tama Shina." With that the female flew down to the grown and landed softly in front of them. "The first Pure One and Tenshi. Pleasure to meet the Fox God and Fox Goddess."

"You're…you're…You can help us with Chibi One then! You can make Chibi One a Tenshi and save him from Quetzalcoatl's Chosen One," Inari stuttered at first before she could find the words she needed. Though when the Tenshi gave them a sad smile, Inari did not know what to think, she did not know if it was a good sign or bad.

"I sorry, but that's not possible," Shina said with a solemn tone.

"_Nani_?! Why not?!" the goddess asked, her voice hoarse and tears in her eyes.

"Because, Tenshi are neither immortals nor mortals. We are summonings; we cannot die and are sent back to our plane of existence if critically damaged. Being so, we will live forever until our duty is complete, and we are not allowed on the mortal plane unless summoned. The only plane of existence that Tenshi are allowed on without being called, other than our own, is the immortal, but we don't come here often since we feel as if we are invading your world. These are just a few reasons why I cannot change Naruto into a Tenshi. I can't to that to him, like you couldn't go through with making him your Heir," the high angel explained to the two gods. "Besides, until now all the Pure Ones have been female, and Naruto is the first male Pure One. I don't know what the affect of the boy ascending into Tenshi would be. Also, there is already a plan made for him by my summoner."

"And who would that be?" Inari asked, holding his sister closed to him to keep her from crying.

"Kami-sama, since I am his Chosen One after all," Shina said with a smirk on her face as she saw the two's disbelieving looks.

"What?!"

Sighing, Kami-sama's Chosen One began to explain to them what was going on. She described what would happen should Quetzalcoatl's Chosen One succeed in his plans. The world would be sent into a dark age and would not recover for eons. It would then take over three millennia to even get a decent start at rebuilding the world. To stop this from happening, Kami-sama had summoned her and her angels to find a way to stop it from happening, and she had found a way; through a child. A child that was already burdened with so much from a young age.

"But Chibi One can't do anything if he is already dead," the fox god told Shina, thinking that she had already forgotten what Quetzalcoatl's Chosen One was planning on doing to the small boy.

"That's why he won't become immortal or Tenshi, but he won't be completely mortal either. He will be a hybrid of sorts; a hybrid between Tenshi, immortal, and mortal, and a Pure One to boot," explained Shina as she waved her hand, and three small globes of white light formed around her, taking shape as a mortal boy, a fox, and an angel. The three shapes swirled around each other in a dance to an unknown tune before merging with one another and forming a new shape. This shape was an outline of a young teenager wearing a cloak, with foxes dancing at the figure's feet, and two warrior-like angels hovering just above his head. "If done correctly, Naruto will become a mortal Heir of Foxes with the powers of a Tenshi and, in a way, becoming a Tenshi himself, whilst still being a Pure One and having the demonic powers of his familiar, the Kyuubi no Kitsune."

"But you can't do that without Chibi One's permission," the fox goddess pointed out and was surprised when Shina agreed with her.

"That's why I already asked him, and he agreed with it," Shina said with a smile on her face. Though, before either of the gods could say anything else, another angel with dark green hair appeared before them.

"It's done Shina-sama. Naruto-san has two guardians, though not in the way we planned," the dark green haired angel told the other.

"Thank you Yumiko-san. You may leave," the higher angel told the lower. Yumiko bowed in respect, and without another warning, she disappeared all together. Turning back to the others, Shina explained to them what had just happened before they had anytime to ask. "Yumiko was to find two guardians for Naruto so that he has someone to share some of his burden with and to help him out along the way. However, it didn't come out how we had expected. Instead of accepting them as guardians, Naruto made both of them his older brothers instead."

"You mean-"

"Naruto met Haku and Gaara because of Yumiko," Shina told the two.

"How can Chibi One have two guardians to share the burden with if we can only show ourselves to him?" Inari asked. He knew that gods and goddesses could only show themselves to their Chosen One and other Chosen Ones, and he defiantly did not want to break any laws by showing himself to a mortal who knew who and what he was. He really did not want to be sent to purgatory for an indefinite amount of time. Purgatory and him did not bond well at all.

"Whoever said you would be showing yourselves to morals? Last I checked, it was alright to show yourselves to other gods' descendants and demons, or demon containers in Gaara's case," the angel said with a slight sly grin on her face. After all, bending the rules was something she loved to do and seeing how Gaara was a demon container he could interact with any deity if they chose. In Haku's case, though it was not a well known fact, some of the clans with bloodline limits had them because they were descendants of one of the divine beings, and Haku was one of them.

"Oh, one question though," the goddess of fertility said, and the angel motioned to her to ask what ever she wanted to know.

"Whose Gaara?" the two asked together.

Shina almost wanted to smack her head, but she did not and instead answered their question. "The one breaking him out of the hellhole he is in-"

* * *

An ice mirror was in front of the doorway of the cage, not letting anyone of the pounding, raging slave traders and thugs in. Children huddled in the farthest corner from the door of the cage. Only one boy stood in the middle of the enclosure, senbon in hands and a raging look in his eyes. Sweat was pouring down his face as he stood protectively over a fallen boy that the slave traders wanted to take out of the cage and kill. He did not know how much longer it would take them to break down his ice mirror, since he did not have much chakra left. Though, the little red fox was standing protectively in front of the two, ready to attack if the mirror were to fall. 

Suddenly, when he felt as if he were ready to drop, sands surrounded the cage they were in and bent the bars, allowing the scared children to run out free. The only three that did not run were the one guarding the sickly boy, the little red fox, and the sickly boy himself. The sand that had bent the bars started to surround the three until the thugs and slave traders could not see them anymore. Then, the sphere of sand that surrounded the three disappeared along with them.

* * *

"-and both Gaara and Haku will protected Naruto with all they have and more.-"

* * *

Two boys hid in the shadows of an alleyway, watching the shinobi guards, waiting for them to change guard duty for the nightshift. They did not have to wait long. Seeing them get their gear, the two knew it was about time to change guards, and they slipped back further into the alley. At the end of the passage was a blond boy that seemed about ready to die. By his side, whimpering quietly, was a little red kitsune. 

Getting on either side of the blond, the two slung one of the boy's arms over each of their shoulders and started to carry him forward with the fox following. Stopping at the entrance of the alleyway, the boys waited quietly for the shinobi to change shifts. When that happened, they started to drag the sick blond boy towards the gate. They made their way past the gate and were a few feet away from the village before anyone stopped them.

Hearing the yells of the shinobi guards, the brunet pulled out chakra that he did not have and formed an ice mirror right in front of them. Running into the mirror, the small group was absorbed into the ice before it sank into the sand. A few hundred feet away, another ice mirror rose from the ground, and the small group stumbled out, unharmed of any injuries from the Suna shinobi.

* * *

"-Things from now on will be difficult for Naruto and his brothers, but if they do it together, they'll be fine. And with the family they already have and the family they will gain, they just might make it," Shina finished off with a smile on her face.

* * *

The small family dragged on through the desert night sand. All of them were tired, but they would not stop, because, if they did, they did not think that the youngest part of the family would make it. The body in their arms suddenly jerked and looked up into the distance with glazed over eyes. Following his gaze, the two other boys saw the faint silhouette of a person in the distance, walking towards them. At first they were scared of what was going to happen, but what Naruto said next made them at ease. 

"Oji-san."

* * *

Thanks for reading and hopefully I can have a new chapter out. My goal is to have a chapter done at least once a month, if not twice a month. If I can't do that, then I've failed, yet again, as a writer. Oh and to 

**Lost ninja #1:** Thanks again for the name, but I'm sorry to say there will be no child Sasuke, actually this chapter is the end of Naruto's childhood. Next chapter is a time jump to the future! (Finally)

**lee:** Yes, the fourth will find out Naruto is his son, but not right away, (smirks evilly) nor for a very long time if it continues how I have planned. Though nothing goes the way I want it to half the time.

I think that's everything I have to say, well hope you like!

3/16/07

Okay now it's been beta-ed, hope it sounds better now.

2/3/2008

Hey, it has been etided again! By me this time... I'm on a writers block and to get over it, I am trying to reread my whole story, but the problem is I keep finding the most stupid of mistakes so I just have to fix them. Hope you're all okay with that.

Shi no Tenshi 902


	8. Konohagakure no Sato

I love spring break, since I got a new chapter done and all. Hope you all like, it's finally back in Konoha!

* * *

The day was like any other: birds chirping their early morning song, villagers setting up shop and getting ready for the day ahead, Obito running late to his team meeting, happy children dashing about getting ready for school or the academy. Just like any other day in the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Nothing much had changed in Konoha in a long while. The villagers carried on with their daily life while the older shinobi went on dangerous missions and the younger shinobi preformed the minor assignments. Even Team Yondaime had not change that much, though they did not meet everyday like they did when they were genin. They still gathered once a week to train and catch up with one another, if they were not on a mission or in a meeting.

While many things stayed the same, many things in Konohagakure had changed, too. Arashi, who used to hate doing paper work and usually left it for the Sandaime, still left the old man some, but now did a lot of it himself. The fourth would also space out once in a while, thinking about the past and what could have been. Other than that, the Yondaime seemed fine to everyone except those that knew him best. They could see the hurt in his eyes every time the festival celebrating the defeat of the Kyuubi no Kitsune came, or when someone would mention how their son or daughter was doing in front of him. The ones that knew about it always tried to find a way to help him, but sometimes even they could not get through to him.

Rin had changed a lot as well. No longer did she have a childish crush on Kakashi, nor did she shun Obito and think of him as a dead last. Though what also helped her get over her juvenile crush was when she found out the white-haired boy, now a man, was gay. She still yelled at Obito when he was late and made up those stupid excuses, but it was more of a chastisement than her actually being angry. She still declined his offers of dates, though, since she saw him as a friend rather than in a romantic way. Rin had started to take her training more seriously and had stopped fawning over boys period. Her job as a kunoichi of Konoha was more important to her at the moment.

Obito… well, Obito was Obito. He had changed the least, but at the same time he had changed the most. He was still late to everything and always gave the same outrageous excuses, but he was also more serious when it came to training. He had never taken life for granted, but after the _accident, _he started to live it fuller than ever before. Always taking the time to enjoy the little things in life, as well as to help others out when he could. It was a nice thing to see. Nowadays, everyone was so involved in themselves to lend a hand to those around them.

The one most obvious to change, however, was Kakashi. After the _accident, _he had changed just like the others. He was no longer a stuck up bastard like he once was, though Obito still insisted on calling him Kakashi-teme when he was really mad at him for one thing or another… or even if he was just goofing around. Kakashi had learned to relax some and not be so serious all the time. Though there was a downside to him relaxing some. This would be when he found _it_, much to Arashi's displeasure, and many others shared his view. _It _was the god forsaken book, _Icha Icha Paradise_, written by Jiraiya, and Arashi could not remember any other time he wanted to kill his sensei more than he did then.

As for the _accident _that changed everything… well, it was during the last Shinobi War, which was way before Kyuubi no Kitsune attacked the village if anyone was wondering. Rin had gotten captured, and Obito had gone back to save her while Kakashi followed. Obito had somehow convinced him to come along. After they had saved Rin and were trying to escape, a Rock-nin used a jutsu that caused a rockfall on top of Obito. It crushed his whole right side moments after he had activated his Sharingan eye for the first time. He then had Rin transplant his left eye into Kakashi and urged them to save themselves. After they had left him there with only a final glance of sorrow, Obito waited for death and let the darkness take over.

However, when he was on the verge of death, a miracle happened; one that only Arashi and Obito himself knew about. An angel with silver hair and eyes of the night sky saved him. He himself did not remember much but the soft, soothing voice she had calmed him down with. At first, he had thought she was there to take him away, but when he asked if that was so, she had just giggled and said he had a long life ahead of him. That was all he remembered before blacking out.

After he passed out, the angel had revived his body as good as new, missing eye and all. She then took him to his team's camp and gave him to the only person awake, which happened to be Arashi. Stunned at seeing an angel returning his thought-to-be-dead student to him, alive and with nothing wrong with the Uchiha, the Yondaime had simply asked why, and the words she spoke next the blond man never forgot.

"Because one angel must look after another. Even if one does not have the wings of an angel, they're still angels, and there are very few angels left in this day and age. An angel such as yourself should know that."

Still, that was not the only major, life changing event that had happened, aside from Orochimaru's defect and the Kyuubi no Kitsune's attack. The first was Cloud's false treaty offer. Cloud had come to sign a peace treaty with Leaf, but when they kidnapped the Hyuuga Heiress, it was obvious that the peace treaty was false. Thankfully Hyuuga Hiashi had figured out that it was the Cloud that had kidnapped his daughter and, before they could leave, had killed them all to retrieve his daughter. Nonetheless, when Cloud found out about the whole thing, they demanded Hyuuga's head or they would go to war with them. This was soon solved thanks to the Yondaime Hokage calling their bluff and making one of his own, only his was in no way a bluff. He said he would do to Cloud what he had done to Rock if they ever tried anything like that again.

The next event that changed Konoha was the Uchiha Massacre. Uchiha Itachi, the genius prodigy of the Uchiha Clan, and a spoiled brat in Arashi's opinion, killed the whole entire clan save his little brother. Well, at least he thought he had killed all of the Uchiha Clan, but he had left out one, well known Uchiha that really was not thought of as an Uchiha much anymore, Uchiha Obito. Yet it proved that the elder Uchiha did not know his younger brother well -since his reason for killing the whole clan was to kill his brother in all ways but physically, or at least that was what he said when he confronted Sasuke- for every time the elder Uchiha blew off his younger brother, he would spend time with someone that truly appreciated him. Sasuke would spent time with Obito and grew a brotherly bond with him unlike anything he had ever had with his true older brother, which worked out in the young Uchiha Heir's favor, in a way. After the massacre, instead of being alone and becoming all angst-and-avenger type, the boy had Obito to take care of him. That did not make him a very social kid thought, but it was still better than it could have been.

Despite those events, Konohagakure was the same as ever, and the events were forgotten in time. But a few still remembered them completely, mainly those that were involved in the events. They remembered the details and what was so important about them. Others simply remembered the dates and knew not to speak of event during those days, but they themselves never truly remembered the significance of such times. Sad really, when one was to think about it, but there was nothing that could be done about it either. Today, though, there was going to be something that changed this dull normality that had befallen Konoha, and it all started like usual: Obito was late for his team's weekly meeting.

* * *

"You're late Obito," Rin growled out as the boy came running across the bridge they usually had their meeting on. Everyone but him was already there. Rin, being the first to "_greet_"him, was standing at the end of the bridge in her jounin outfit with her shoulder length, brown hair in a ponytail and honey brown eyes glaring at him. Kakashi, also in his jounin uniform, was lounging up against the railing of the bridge, his hitai-ate covering his left eye and his black face mask still in place. Last but not least, the Yondaime stood to the side of the bridge, wearing his jounin attire underneath his white and red flame cloak. Everyone was waiting for Obito.

"Sorry I'm late, but I had to help a group of kids find the Kyuubi no Kitsune so they could take him to the vet and get him his shots," Obito told them as he came to a stop in front of them, while adjusting his goggles, making sure his own jounin outfit was nice looking and nothing was in his hair.

"Liar," the only girl on the team mumbled as her teammate pouted at her for not believing his excuse.

"Why don't you believe me? You believe me don't you sensei?" the Uchiha whined to his mentor and leader of the village. However, when his sensei rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and gave him a small smile that caused his eyes to close, Obito knew. "Ahhhh-man, you too sensei?"

"Sorry Obito, but your lying hasn't gotten any better over the years," Arashi laughed as he ruffled his youngest student's hair. Snorting, Obito folded his arms over his chest and mumbled something under his breath... Though that caused the others around him to laugh, all in good nature, which only made the dobe of their year frown and pout some more. He soon brightened up, though, and became his normal self once again.

"So, what's on our weekly schedule for today? Some type of dangerous mission? Assassination? Rescue? Both?" Obito asked eagerly, and he would have gone on if his sensei had not interrupted him.

"Nope, none of those," Arashi said cheerfully, more so than Obito was. "Today we're going to train and to do that, we're going to find the Lady of Fire Country's cat!" The three groans coming from his students only made Arashi smile even more. "Now, that's not how I trained you. You guys should jump at every training opportunity that is presented to you, even if it is a degrading mission."

"Yes sensei," the three droned together, still sounding more like they were ordered to go to a funeral than a simple mission.

"Good," Yondaime said with a grin on his face. A grin that did not sit well with his students.

* * *

"I'm hungry, can we get something to eat yet?" Obito whined as they trekked their way back to Konohagakure through the forest that surround the village. He and Kakashi had scratches covering their bodies and tears in their clothing. They were both covered in mud as well and had a matching, miserable look on their faces… well, what part of Kakashi's face that could be seen. On the other hand, Rin was happily trotting around with out a scratch or flake of mud on her being and smile on her face. In the woman's arms there was a tabby cat with a ribbon on its left ear, purring contently.

"We first have to deliver the cat to the Lady of Fire Country, then we have to report back to Arashi-sensei," Rin told her teammates.

"But I'm hungry now," the Uchiha continued to whine. Yet his two teammates, after years of practice, learned to tune him out and were doing so at that very moment. After realizing that no one was listening to him, Obito began to whine even louder. He finally did quiet down when they stopped in front of the Hokage Tower, and Rin dropped the cat of to its owner while the two men stayed behind because of their looks. When they were finished with that, they headed back to the bridge where they had left their sensei while they were completing their mission.

Once they came into the clearing and Arashi could see the three and them him, they saw his grin that he only used when he was trying to hold back his laughter. Though he did not say anything, _yet,_ they all knew it was coming, it could not be helped. Just seeing two, well known and well trained jounin of their status covered in mud, tears, and scratches all because of a simple, D-rank mission to retrieve a cat, could make anyone burst out in laughter. And to top it all off, their teammate, the only girl on the team, had not one scratch, one tear, nor one blotch of mud on her being, and she was said to be the weakest of the group.

"Don't say anything," Kakashi growled out as they came into hearing range.

"Now why would I do that?" Arashi asked as he tried to hold in his laughter and barely succeeding.

"Because those two got beat up by a cat maybe?" Rin asked, grinning as well as she pointed to the two battered men. That was all it took before both she and Arashi broke out laughing, and before long, Obito had joined in their laughter. Kakashi growled out, not please that all of them were laughing at his expense.

"Stop laughing," Kakashi growled out towards the others and then turned his attention towards Obito, "and why are you laughing too? The same thing happened to you."

"But it's funny when you think about it," Obito said in between his own laughter before falling on the ground, clutching his sides in his amusement. "And besides, laughter is good for you. You should try it some time."

"Haha," the scarecrow laughed sarcastically, "now will you shut up?"

Ten minutes later, the group had gotten over their laughing fit, save Kakashi who still did not think it was funny at all. The group then sat down and brought out their bento boxes, excluding Obito since he had forgotten his box at home, or at least that was what the others thought. Actually, Obito had stayed up late training with Sasuke to make sure he was ready for the academy today and had totally spaced on making lunch for him and Sasuke. Nevertheless, he did have enough time before dropping Sasuke off at the academy to pick up a lunch for his little cousin, he had then been stopped by childern that were important to him and still had to get to his team meeting relatively early… for him at least. Needless to say, Obito was complaining to his teammates that had their own food that he was hungry, and it was getting on all their nerves.

"But I'm hungry," Obito whined as he sat cross legged in the circle they had created when they had settled down to eat. Leaning over Rin, he tried to steal some of her dango, but only succeeded in getting his hand slapped away. Shying away from the female of the group, the Uchiha thought he would have better luck stealing some of Kakashi's sushi, yet the same exact thing happened; only this time with more force. Sitting back down in his spot whilst nursing his abused hand, Obito pouted in hunger. "So mean."

"It's not like we haven't given you food before when you forgot it," Rin said in between bites before pointing her skewer at him. "But this time we're not. Hopefully it'll teach you not to forget your things next time."

"And if that doesn't suit you, you can always trying getting some of Arashi-sensei's food," Kakashi suggested, finishing his food without anyone seeing his face. They had gotten used to never being able to see his face and had eventually given up trying to find out what was underneath his mask. When Kakashi mentioned getting food from the Yondaime, they all turned and looked towards their sensei, who had not heard anything they were saying and was happily slurping away at his ramen.

Looking back at the others, Obito gave Kakashi a disbelieving look.

"I'm hungry, not suicidal!" Obito all but shouted as a shiver went up and down his spine. The memory of what he had done to that one person, who shall be left nameless, was still fresh in their minds, even though it had happened years ago. They had never seen their sensei freak out so much over food before in their lives, and they most certainly did not want to see a repeat of it ever happening again, especially if it were to happen to themselves. So that left Obito without any other options and without food, leaving him hungrier than ever. Man, Obito really wished he had not skip breakfast that morning. It meant that he had to sit there, with nothing to eat, watching as his teammates, who had their own food, eat. Life sucked at the moment.

"Obito-san! Obito-san!" a high pitch child's voice called out from behind the man. Swerving around, Obito looked towards the voice that was calling his name and a smile spread across his face. Arashi and the two other jounin followed the voice to the person yelling for Obito and were surprised at what they saw. It was a boy, around nine or ten years of age, eleven at the most, wearing a bright orange jumpsuit and carrying a puppy-sized, red canine-like animal in his crossed arms. However, what startled them the most was the fact that the boy was almost a mini replica of the Yondaime. The boy had short, spiky blond hair and uniquely colored blue eyes that they had only ever seen on their sensei. Save for the three whisker-like marks on his cheeks and the obvious fact that he was a child, the boy could have been the Yondaime.

"Naruto-kun!" the Uchiha yelled out happily, jumping up from his spot and running to the other side of the bridge where he stopped and waited for the boy. It was the perfected distance from the others to let them hear any of their conversation if they wanted to, and it was no surprise to anyone that they did listen in, because anyone in their right mind would. Hell, it was a mini Yondaime, and that was enough to hook their attention, anyone's for that matter. "What are you doing here, Naruto-kun? Aren't you supposed to be at the academy right now?"

"Um-about that, well you see," the boy, Naruto, tried to fumble for the right words, "I just wanted to thank you for helping us find Kyuubi this morning when he hid so he didn't have to get his shots, even though you had to be somewhere. Thank you, Obito-san."

Chuckling, Obito ruffled the boy's hair and smiled fondly at the boy. "You're welcome, Naruto-kun." The canine in Naruto's hand, which could now be made out as a fox kittling, yelped and tried to nip at Obito, since he felt like he was being left out. "You're welcome too Kyuubi-kun," Obito said scratching the fox behind the ear and smiled when he let out a fox-like pure. "Though you should still be in the academy, since it is graduation day if you pass the exams, right?"

"Uh-huh," the little blond said, giving him a sheepish smile as he looked away from Obito and down at the fox in his arms.

"Good, then get going before I take you back personally, and you wouldn't want that would you?" Obito chastised the boy, surprising his team. Since when was Obito so responsible? Sure, they knew he had to take care of his little cousin, but they had never actually seen him doing so. It had never come to their minds that he would be responsible like this while taking care of anyone, but they were proven wrong once again. Looking up at the poof sound of a teleportation jutsu, Obito's gaze met with black eyes and he smiled at the person. Turning back towards Naruto and his fox, Obito ruffled the boy's spiky locks once again. "Now I think it's time for you to go back, since Iruka-sensei came all the way out here to retrieve you, okay?"

Turning around and seeing his sensei, standing behind him with a smile on his face, Naruto gave Obito one last smile before running towards Iruka. However, once he reached the chuunin, Naruto seemed to remember something and gave Kyuubi to the academy teacher before running back over. Once he was there, Obito raised an eyebrow in a questioning look. Smiling a vulpine-like smile, Naruto pulled a small bento box from within his jumpsuit and gave it to Obito. Seeing the box made the Uchiha lose his smile, and he tried to refuse it, but the blond just pushed it into his hands and ran back to Iruka. Collecting Kyuubi from the teacher, Naruto turned around and waved goodbye to Obito.

"Ja ne Obito-san!" And with that there was another poof and they were gone back to the academy. Sighing in apparent defeat, Obito headed over to his teammates and plopped back down in his spot in the circle. Silently, he ran his hand across the glossy top of the box, yet he could not bring himself to open it. Sadly, Obito sighed again.

"What's your problem Obito? Weren't you just complaining about your hunger five minutes ago? And now you're not eating. That's not like you at all," Rin said seriously, before adding in a joking manner, "It's not like that's all the food the boy has."

"But it probably is," Obito said quietly, so quietly that the others would have never been able to heard him if it was not for their years of shinobi training. Startled, the three jerked their heads towards Obito, yet he was not looking at them. He was looking at the box in his lap sorrowfully and, with a quick flick of his wrist, he opened the box. A small, sad smile appeared on his lips when he saw what was inside the box. Carefully, the man lifted out a clumsily made onigiri and started nibbling on it slowly, a large contrast from his usual way of stuffing food into his mouth and swallowing without chewing.

Kakashi and Rin looked at each other questioningly, wondering how to ask what was running on everyone's mind, but still trying to not be rude by just blurting it out. It seemed like a sore subject for him, since Obito was not acting like...well Obito. Looking at Arashi, since the two could not come up with anything, they saw him staring at the spot where the blond left with Iruka, deep in thought. It was almost scary to see him this way, since he was only like this when he was acting as the Yondaime or performing high level missions. Kakashi and Rin both saw him open his mouth to speak to their teammate, but Obito cut him off.

"So Kakashi-teme, how is your relationship with Iruka going these days?" Obito tried to tease his teammate, diverting their attention else where. But the only way he could think of doing that was ask about Kakashi and his nonexistent relationship he had with the academy teacher, since everyone on their team knew how much the man was crushing on the chuunin. Yet the scarecrow never spoke up when the chuunin was around. Instead he became as stiff as a board and Obito thought he would turn into a real scarecrow when they first saw him doing so. However, his teammates were not so easily fooled, much to Obito's displeasure at the moment. They were all high level shinobi for a reason.

"Obito-kun," Rin said lightly, causing Obito to stiffen up. He knew what that meant and he was _not_ going to do it, even if he still had a slight crush on the girl he was not going to go through with it. Every time she added -kun to his name, it usually meant she wanted something and he would usually give it to her, trying to win her over, but not this time.

"Nope, no way, no how. What ever you're going to ask, I'm not telling," Obito said, shaking his head back and forth vigorously before stuffing a whole onigiri into his mouth so he had a reason not to speak anymore.

"Oh, come on Obito-kun, you haven't even heard what I have to ask!" Rin cooed, leaning closer to Obito, but he still refused. No one could really blame him though, since at the moment he had a whole onigiri shoved into his mouth.

"Yeah, come on dobe, just tell us what we want to know," Kakashi said with an evil gleam in his eyes as he leaned over Obito so Rin was leaning over him on one side and him on the other. The black hair man was now sweating bullets, but shook his head vigorously no yet again.

"Obito, as Yondaime of Konohagakure, I order you-," This caught the others attention as they turned to face their sensei and saw him sitting there without his usual fun loving expression and with his arms crossed over his chest, "-to tell me who that boy was and what you meant by that bento box being all the food he might have. Got that?"

A gulping sound was heard as Obito swallowed the onigiri he had stuffed into his mouth. The others heard, more than saw, that Obito was nervous as he was answering his sensei.

"Yes, sensei," Obito said quietly, cringing slightly while doing so.

"Good," the Yondaime said in a voice that called for respect and brought fear to his enemies, "begin."

Thinking a bit before answering the Hokage, the Uchiha tried to think of the best way to begin his story. "You remember Uzumaki Hoshi, Sandaime's old teammate, right?" the man asked the Kage before him.

In response, Obito got a raised golden eyebrow and a confused look. "The one that died eight years ago?"

"Yea, that's the one," Obito confirmed before continuing on. "Well apparently she left behind three grandsons, two thirteen year olds and one eleven year old, as you saw, Uzumaki Naruto. Together, they live alone in Hoshi-san's old house on the outskirts of town. They don't have a lot, but they make do with what they have, and they've been a little better off since Naruto's older brothers passed the genin exams last year. Though, it's sometimes hard on Naruto that his brothers are genin already since they leave him alone every time they have a mission and are out of the village for extended periods of time. Yet when anyone says anything to him, Naruto stubbornly says he's okay and that he's got his fox, Kyuubi, with him anyways."

"So you weren't lying this morning? When you said you had to help some kids find the Kyuubi no Kitsune?" Rin asked in amazement, and to say Kakashi was shocked would be an understatement.

"Yep, since Kyuubi is his name and he is a kitsune, I helped the Uzumakis find the Kyuubi no Kitsune," the man said cheerfully. Though if anyone were to take time to notice, they would have seen that Arashi was still pondering over something that the Uchiha had said and was not listening in on their new conversation of whether or not there had been any other times Obito was been late and his excuse was not a lie but really had been the truth.

"Obito?" Arashi suddenly said, causing the others to look back at the blond man.

"Yea?" the man in question responded.

"There's one thing I don't get about your story," the Kage said as he looked at the ground in between his students and him as if the answer would pop out and reveal itself to him. Though, when that show that it would never happen, he looked up at Obito with the most serious look they had ever seen in their sensei's eyes and continued. "From the way you put it, Naruto and his brothers are orphans, if I'm not mistaken, so why aren't they in an orphanage or have a caretaker to look after them like other orphans do?"

At this Obito cringed yet again, but nobody missed it and it made them further curious.

"Do you remember the rumor a few years back that there was a boy believed to be the Kyuubi no Kitsune's reincarnation? But then it suddenly disappeared?" at the nodding of head, Obito went on. "Well, that's because Hoshi-sama moved out of the village and took Naruto with her, since Naruto was the boy that they believed to be the kitsune's reincarnation. So when Hoshi-sama died and Uzumakis moved back into Konoha two years ago, the villagers believed the same thing was true and wouldn't have anything to do with them. They lived alone with no one to check up on them, until about a year ago, when Iruka and I found out what was happening by pure coincidence. You see, it was all began very badly

"Some stupid boys were beating up Naruto, since their parents told them that he was evil and a monster, but he wasn't fighting back -later he told me he didn't fight back because he wanted to prove them wrong about being a moster. And that's when I happened to walk by them and saw what was going on. I yelled at the stupid boys, which got their attention as well as Iruka-kun's as he was walking by. The boys all fled while Iruka and I ran over to see if the boy was alright. When we got to the boy's side Iruka instantly recognized him and yelled out to him-"

* * *

"_Naruto_!" Iruka said, kneeling over the battered boy of just ten years.

"Hiya, Iruka-sensei," Naruto said weakly as he tried to push himself up, only to fall back with a cry of pain when he jarred one of his main cuts and bruises. Though, it would seem that it was all that he had left inside of him, because the boy fell unconscious.

"You know him?" Obito asked as he scooped the boy up into his arms gently whilst making sure he did not jar anything that could cause the boy pain.

"A student in my class," Iruka muttered as they slowly, but carefully, began to take him to the hospital.

"Ky'bi," the boy said weakly in his sleep and in response to the boy's voice a cardboard box with a few things on top of it began to move and a yelp came from it. Looking at the box strangely, Obito watched as the chuunin ran over to it and lifted the things off of the box before uncovering a small fox kittling that had been trapped underneath it. Scooping the fox up into his arms he ran back over to Obito and Naruto.

"What's with the fox kit?" the jounin asked curiously as he watched the other male make sure that the fox was not injured as well.

"The fox is Naruto's best, and maybe only, friend. He carries Kyuubi around with him everywhere he goes, kind'a like the Inuzukas and their dogs," the academy teacher said softly.

"Kyuubi?" Obito asked surprised.

"The fox kittling. It's the name Naruto gave him, though for some reason I think it suits the little guy," Iruka said fondly as he petted the fox in his arms. The rest of the walk to the hospital was made in silence. However, when they got to the hospital, it was a whole different story. None of the staff wanted to treat the demon child and Iruka had them running around as if they were chickens with their heads chopped off, due to his rage that they would not heal a simple boy.

Finally, after they got Naruto's cuts clean and bandaged somehow, the hospital staff all but threw them out along with Naruto and his fox even though they probably should have stayed over night to be checked up on. Instead, they made their way to Naruto's home, which Iruka knew the general direction of, but not the exact location. Thankfully, Naruto woke up along the way to his home and pointed them in the right direction as Obito gave him a piggyback ride, much to the boys delight. Once they reached the Uzumaki household, the two were surprised at what they found.

Three children and a fox, living on their own without any adult supervision.

* * *

"-and that is how I first meet Uzumaki Naruto," Obito finished.

"That's so sad," Rin cried out in disgust. "I can't believe anyone would do that to another person, much less a child. The poor boy; he must have had a tough life so far."

"I agree," Kakashi all but sneered. The three teammate and friends continued with the conversation, but Arashi stayed out of it. Instead he was lost in thought, one of them being how he never even heard of the blond boy that looked so much like him before, and another about how he could not believe people in his village acted that way against a child, just because he had fox-like whisker marks on his cheek and he named his fox Kyuubi. Though, there was one more thing at the back of his head nagging him, but he never took time to think about it.

_'Naruto, now where have I heard that name before?'_

* * *

"Great job son. Your old man is proud!"

"So now, we're all adults!"

"Congratulations, graduate! Tonight, Mom's gonna cook up a feast!!"

Every word, every comment, every remark, made Naruto's heart drop even more as the graduates got compliments and praises from their parents when he had failed the genin exams, again. It really was not his fault, he just could never perform a simple bunshin. No matter how hard he tried he could never do a regular bunshin. When he asked Inari-kaasan and Inari-jiji about it, they had not known why either, since he had learned everything else they taught him with ease. Though, after thinking about it for a while, Naruto thought it might be because he had a large amount of chakra to begin with and it had to do with that, so he just did not learn the bunshin technique, which came back to haunt him today.

"Hey, isn't he the kid who-?"

"Yeah, that's him. The only one who failed!"

"Serves him right…"

"Can you imagine if they let someone like that become a shinobi…? I mean, think about what he is…"

"Don't even go there."

Cringing at the two mother kunoichi and their conversation, Naruto stood up from the swing he was sitting on and started to leave. Throwing one last look over at the graduated class, he caught a brief glimpse of Obito congratulating his cousin, Uchiha Sasuke, rookie of the year. Sighing, the blond boy continued on the way home with a solemn Kyuubi as his heels. As he left the academy, the youngest Uzumaki never saw Obito walking up to Iruka and talking to him, or the worried glances around the area once they realized he was nowhere to be found. Nor did he, or anyone for that matter, see a young chuunin sneaking away from the group.

Instead, Naruto walked home slowly, dragging his feet along the way. So out of it, he never realize that the wind had picked up and dark black clouds began covering the sky. However, one little, blood red kitsune noticed the change and began to get a little wary of the weather. Luckily, they were soon at their old, slightly rundown house, and Naruto seemed to brighten up a bit, since he knew his brothers would try to cheer him up. But a forlorn look came across the blond's face when he caught sight of a small white piece of paper tacked to the door and the emptiness around the area.

Walking over to the door with dread, Naruto plucked the piece of paper off and read the simple note.

_Chibi-chan & Kyu-chan, _

_We have a mission to deliver a scroll to some non-ninja village in Fire Country, and we won't be back for a few days. Don't worry about us and eat all of your meals, both of you. We'll be back in no time at all. Be good. _

_From your lovable, overprotective brothers, _

_Ani (Gaara) & Haku-niichan _

Heavily exhaling, the blond turned around and smiled sadly at Kyuubi.

"Well Kyuubi, it looks like it's just me and you for a little while," the usually bubbly blond boy said, but his heart was not into it today. "But I really don't feel like being alone inside today, how about we take a walk?"

Tilting his head to one side, the kitsune let out a small whine followed by a bark of disapproval and, as if the weather was agreeing with the fox, a rather nasty gust of wind blew through the small clearing. However, at seeing the blond's sad face, the fox changed its mind and turned around before trotting away. Smiling his thanks, Naruto followed after the little fox as they headed towards their favorite clearing. Yet, before they could pass the foliage, the bushes on the opposite side of the clearing gave a rather nasty shake and a few of the branches broke. It was not because of the wind, Naruto knew this only because of the fact that there was none at that time. Looking at one another, both Kyuubi and Naruto agreed that they should check it out and slowly made their way over to the bushes.

* * *

Obito had just finished dinner with Sasuke and was cleaning up the mess when he heard a rather urgent knocking at the door. Looking at his soapy hands and then towards the door, even with another wall separating the two, Obito shook his head. Setting down the plate and drying his hands off on a towel, Obito wondered if he could ever get through doing the dishes without either Sasuke's fan club or Sasuke himself interrupting him. But it never seem to be possible, since every night he as he did the dishes, it would never fail that there was a knock, or five, at the door. It would have been so much easier if Sasuke had moved in with him at his old apartment, because none of Sasuke's fan club knew where it was located, but since the boy felt more at home at the mansion, Obito had moved here instead of the other way around.

"I'm coming, I'm coming. Hold on," Obito yelled out as the frantic knocking at the door became banging. Briefly, he wondered why Sasuke never answered the door, but remembered that he was up in his room and probably could not hear the banging through the loud cracks of lightning and the booming of the thunder, that or he thought it to be apart of the storm that was raging on outside. Opening the door, Obito greeted the person cheerfully, "Hello, how ca-"

"Obito, you gotta help me!" Iruka said rushing in from out of the rain, yet it did not help much since the man was already drenched, not to mention hysterical.

"What? What happened?" the usually cheerful Uchiha asked, but that cheerfulness totally gone. There had to be something very wrong seeing as how Iruka had never stopped by before. Something was definitely wrong.

"Naruto," the chuunin breathed out before he rushed out the next part, and somehow Obito was able to understand it, "Naruto, has gone missing! I went to check up on him after everyone had left the academy, to see how he was doing, but I couldn't find him anywhere!"

Obito paled at the thought of anything else happening to the boy, since he had been through so much as it is, but his rational side, that he had developed because of Kakashi, stopped him from jumping to conclusions. Just yet.

"He could have just gone home," the jounin offered, but the man shook his head muttering that he had already been there and no one was there at all. "He might be just wondering around the village."

"In this weather?"

"Good point, how about I help you look for him?" Obito tried to calm the man down yet again, and it seemed to work because the academy teacher agreed with the idea. Grabbing his vest off the hanger by the door, Obito shout up the stairs, "Sasuke I'm gonna go out for a while, stay inside."

Seeing his cousin poke his head outside of his door and giving him a questioningly look. "In this weather?"

"Yea, isn't it just the perfect time for a walk in the park?" Obito joked around causing the youngest Uchiha to shake his head and go back inside his room. Turning back to Iruka, Obito gave a soft, kind smile as to calm the man down and tell him everything would be okay. "Okay, I'm ready let's go."

Running outside, what little dryness Iruka had gotten from being inside the Uchiha Mansion instantly disappeared and Obito became soaked to the bone in two seconds flat. Running across rooftops the two looked for the missing child and his fox, which was not easy. The rain was pouring down in sheets and they could barely see a few feet in front of them let alone the ground below. It did not help that the water also washed away any scents or they would have enlisted Kakashi and his canines' help. It seemed to be hopeless.

"Maybe we should ask sensei for help? He could always assign us some unwilling shinobi to help us find Naruto," the Uchiha suggested after ten minutes of looking for the boy in the pouring rain. It was so damn hard to find the boy and he was wearing bright neon orange for Kami-sama's sake!

"I think you might be right on this one," the chuunin agreed. So the two doubled back around and headed towards the Hokage Tower. However, when the two could see the tower through all of the rain, the saw both Hokages standing in front of a bunch of chuunin and jounin. They seemed to be having some kind of meeting of sorts. When they got a little closer they could faintly hear what the Sandaime was telling them all.

"It was taken half a day ago. We have to find him."

"HAI!" the shinobi said before disappearing in to the rain. Landing to the side of the two Hokages, the Yondaime being the closest, the two men walked up towards the Kages.

"Sensei, what's going on?" Obito asked, not being shy at all in front of the two most powerful men in Konoha, while Iruka on the other hand was not about to speak up anytime soon, unless they spoke to him first.

"Mizuki has stolen the Scroll of Seals," Arashi answered, turning toward the other two shinobi and raising his eye when he saw both of them were out of breathe. "What happen to you two? You both look like an oni got a hold of you."

"It's because we-"

"Yondaime-sama, someone says they saw the traitorous Mizuki run outside of Konoha's gates that way only a few hours ago," a chuunin said, cutting off Obito, as he pointed in one direction. A direction that cause both Obito and Iruka to pale considerable.

"_Shit!_" the academy sensei cursed, gaining the others attention.

* * *

So, how is it so far? I don't know what to do really for some of the pairings (as you can see), but so far it looks like it's going to be SasuNaru, KakaIru, and... wait that's all I've got so far. I feel like an idiot at the moment. I start a story and I don't even have pairings as of yet. Oh well! Hope everyone liked this chapter, I had fun writing it at least. Obito is alive!!! (if it's not obvious enough for you, I like Obito since he reminds me of Naruto.) 

2/7/08

Shi no Tenshi


	9. Team 7 the Yondaime's Way

Q & A

**Tsukiyomi the Kami: **Ah, I wonder who Hoshi is- I mean, wasn't Sarutobi's old female teammate Koharu?

**Shi no Tenshi:** Well, it's like this, yes Koharu is Sarutobi's old female teammate, but I didn't (and still don't) know his third teammate, so I decided to make it another girl since all the teams I've ever seen on _**Naruto**_ have been two boys and a girl. I did it so it would be two girls and a guy. .

**kurokioku: **Also how can Arashi NOT remember his own son's name?!

**Shi no Tenshi:** It is very simple, he supressed his own memory of that night, so he can't remember what happened. Meaning he doesn't remember neither Naruto's name nor what he looks like.

**Hiyami: **And he has Gaara and Haku as his brothers...? Will it be explained in the next chapter?

**Shi no Tenshi:** I guess I didn't explain this well enough, but Gaara and Haku were supposed to be Naruto's guards of sorts, but instead Naruto makes them into his brothers. They both went throught the same thing Naruto did to be offically adopted into the Uzumaki clan and now they are both Uzumakis and his older brothers. I hope that makes sense now.

**Shi no Tenshi:** Any questions that I didn't answer will be answered in time in the story itself, but if they are not, ask me again. Thank you and I hope everyone likes...

* * *

Kazama Arashi ran as if his life depended on it, trying his hardest not to let his emotions get the best of him. Yet it would seem that his emotions were doing just that. It was just too hard not to let his emotions get the best of him when a boy, one that he had never talked to in his life, might have been kidnapped by a renegade shinobi. It was hard not to feel for the boy, from what he had heard, and research on, the boy had a tough life as it was and being kidnapped should not be added on to it. But a gut feeling inside of him told him it already was and if he did not hurry up soon, he would only have a body to find and not a living child. Just thinking that made him pick up his pace, causing the two following behind him to be left behind somewhat. Hey, he was not called the Yellow Flash of Konoha for nothing.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/Flashback\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Hearing the academy sensei curse, the small group turned towards both Obito and Iruka, causing the chunnin to blush.

"Well that worked better than what I would have expected," Obito mumbled, before becoming serious. "Since we have your attention now, we might have a little problem. You see me and Iruka here were trying to find a missing child and it just so happens that the way you are pointing is the location of said missing child's house. Now it might not have anything to do with Mizuki and the Scroll of Seals or it might have everything to do with it, but the problem still is the same, there is still a child that we need to find."

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/End\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

At first Arashi was more than ready to find the missing child that the traitor could have had, but he became even more serious about it when he found out who it was exactly that might have been kidnapped.

_\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/Flashback\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/_

_"What was wrong with Naruto in the first place that had you so worried about him?" Arashi asked after he learned that it might have been Naruto that was taken. He did not want to jump to conclusions like others did which caused them to make big mistakes and he did not want to do that since it could cause Naruto to lose his life._

_"He failed the genin exam and seemed pretty upset about it. I didn't get a chance to talk to him, because I was talking to all of the parents, so I had asked Obito to do so for me. However, before he could even get the chance to Naruto and Kyuubi were already gone," Iruka explained dejectedly. "It was his third time taking the genin exam, too."_

_"But didn't you tell me that Naruto and his brothers only moved here two years ago, how has he taken the exams three times?" Arashi asked his only student that was there. Though instead of Obito answering, Iruka answered for him._

_"He was put in a higher class along with his brothers, but didn't pass his exams the first, and second, time because he didn't show up on the day of the exam," the teacher said thoughtfully. "I never thought about that until now, I wonder why."_

_\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/End\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/_

Shaking his head to get the thoughts of the past out of his head, so Arashi could concentrate on the up coming future, the man contined on. He neither knew where he was going, nor why he was going that way, but for some reason it felt like he was headed in the right direction. It might have been the same reason why he knew that Naruto was already kidnapped and it was not just a theory or it might have been a fluke. Either way he just knew that he was going in the right direction.

Catching sight of a small red bundle in the middle of his path through the sheets of rain, Arashi slowed down just to make sure that it was not a trap left by Mizuki. Walking closer to the object carefully, a gasp escaped his lips once he realized what it was. Running over to the bundle, the blond carefully kneeled down and picked up the soaking wet fox kittling. Looking the fox over, he confirmed that it was the same fox that Naruto had carried with and Obito had told him was named Kyuubi. There did not seemed to be any injuries on the fox kittling, it just only seemed to be knocked out.

Shaking the fox a little was all it took for the little fox to jolt awake. Upon waking, the little fox was instantly alert, which Arashi found interestingly. No normal fox would do something like that and it intrigued him. Though he really had no time to think of that now, he had to find Naruto. Giving the fox a once over one more, the blond set the fox down on the ground and began to get back on his way of finding the missing child. He had thought that the fox would stay in the road until either Obito or Iruka would find him and picked the fox up. However, the fox had jumped up onto the man's shoulder and would not budge.

"You want to find him too, huh?" Arashi asked, not really expecting the fox to respond and was surprised when the fox yelped in agreement. Quickly getting over his surprise, he nodded his head, "alright then, let's get going."

'Naruto, wherever you are, please hold on,' the Yondaime thought to himself as he took off running again.

* * *

Naruto struggled within in his binds and protested loudly as Mizuki-sensei, no the _traitor_, carried him over his shoulder, like a sack of potatoes while running. The traitor did not seem to be worried about the boy's struggled, knowing no shinobi of genin level could escape form pure chakra ropes, plus he put enough chakra in the chakra ropes to hold someone of a chunnin's caliber. He also did not seem to be worried that anyone would find him anytime soon or he would not be lugging around the boy _and _a forty pound scroll whilst running away. If Naruto had not know any better, he would have thought this guy was an amateur shinobi. 

Since, first of all, he was sneaking around Naruto's house without concealing himself while he was supposedly in hiding. Secondly, the stupid moron was leaving a trail behind him. Sure it was raining and some of his tracks would be washed away, but a good shinobi could find even the smallest traces of them without a problem. Then the bastard knocked Kyuubi out in the middle of the path and left him there. Naruto did hope his little fox friend was alright, since he was only nipping at the man's feet to slow him down somewhat so someone could find them, but come on! In the middle of the path while leaving him there, any _academy _student could find him there and know they were headed in the right direction. Finally, his last two mistakes were that he was over confident, which was one of the two biggest flaws in being a shinobi, and he underestimated his opponent, the other biggest flaw in being a shinobi.

It may have looked like Naruto was struggling within the chakra ropes while yelling loudly and had no idea how to get out of his grasp, when in reality it was to divert Mizuki's attention somewhere else. It was working too, because the blond was slowly, but surely, drawing the chakra out of the ropes restraining him and feed it to the wind, which was probably why the wind was getting even more aggressive than before. He just needed a little more time and the slowly diminishing chakra ropes would flicker and die out. Leaving him home free.

"Let me go! Let me Go, asshole!" Naruto yelled, but winced knowing if his family, the Tenshi, or either of fox twins heard him he would be in serious trouble for cursing. Hopefully they would never find out at all and even if they did, he would just tell them that it was to keep Mizuki's attention away from what he was doing and pray that they would believe him. It was the truth after all.

"Shut up, demon!" Mizuki roared, finally having enough. First it was that pesky little fox that keep biting his heels, which were now bleeding thanks to that rat, and then it was the constant screaming and struggling of the demon's reincarnate. It was getting on his nerves and he had finally had enough of it all. "That's it, I can't take it anymore!"

Throwing the boy on to the ground rather harshly, Mizuki smiled to himself when he heard the boy impacted the ground with a rather odd sound that was a hybrid between a groan of pain and having the wind knocked out of him at the same time. He was even more satisfied when he noticed that the boy had a dazed look in his eyes, probably from hitting his head on the sharp jagged rock by his left temple, and blood running down his head from his hair.

"I was going to wait to kill you until I got out of the country, but it seems like now's the best opportunity," Mizuki sneered, even though the blond boy was too disoriented to understand what he was staying. Unclipping one of the two giant shurikens on his back, Mizuki gave a nasty sneer and with a flick of the wrist sent the shuriken flying. _"DIE DEMON!"_

Mizuki watched in satisfaction as the lethal weapon drew nearer and nearer to the boy that he -and many others- believed to be the Kyuubi no Kitsune in human form. If it was not for the simple fact that he was betraying the village at the moment, he was sure he would get some kind of award form the people of Konoha for killing the demon child. Hell, he might even get an award from one of the Hokages themselves, or even be promoted to jounin. Bring himself back to reality and instead of his fantasies, Mizuki gave another sneer as he watched the shuriken about to penetrate the boy's body and disappear right before his very eyes.

Wait, disappear?

"Where did it go?" Mizuki asked out loud, looking around the area for the shuriken and where it might have gone.

"Looking for this?"

Mizuki swirled around to see a barely visible figure through the rain and could not make out much of the person. However, the traitor did notice the figure holding his shuriken. Now if he was any other shinobi, Mizuki might have stopped and thought about what he was going to do, but he was not, meaning he did not. Instead the man grabbed several kunai and regular shurikens whilst pumping chakra in to them. Grinning like a madman, Mizuki taunted the figure in the distance so that whoever the person was did not see what he was doing with his hands, but he doubted anyone could see through this rain.

"So you caught my shuriken, big deal. Any descent ninja could do so. All you're trying to do is play hero, but let me tell you something," the silver hair man sneered.

"Oh, and what would that be?" the Yondaime asked the traitor, wondering if the other man knew that the rain did nothing to hide the fact of what he was doing with his chakra from his senses. It kind of made him wonder how this guy managed to steal the Scroll of Seals in the first place. This guy seemed to be an idiot, that or an amateur.

"You can't do that if you're _DEAD!_" Mizuki yelled throwing his weapons with enough chakra in them to cause a small explosion. The weapons cut throw the air and rain with a whizzing sound and at a fast enough pace that seemed to been in Mizuki's hand in one second and exploding in their designated target the next. The force of the released chakra momentarily made a sufficient amount of chakra to create an umbrella from the explosion of sorts, causing the rain from falling for a split second. Yet a second was all it took for Mizuki to see that the weapons never made contacted with the unknown figure and no one was standing there. "Wha-"

"Looking for me?" the voice from before asked from behind him as an incredible pain became known, coming from the back of his head. Whatever had hit him had enough force in it that it sent Mizuki flying across the area and into the muddy ground. The Yondaime smirked in satisfaction that the guy groaned in pain. However, he did not have enough time to thing about that as the fox that once had been on his shoulder was now yelping in urgency behind him. Turning around, Arashi ran over to the blond boy's side not caring about the fallen scroll at his feet, where the fox was currently yelping into the boy's ear, and started checking him over.

The first thing that he noticed was that the blond's eyes were half closed and a glazed over look rested in his eyes. The second thing he noticed was that there was a red liquid that was running down his head only to be washed away by the rain, but it was soon replaced by more and the whole process started all over again. If that was not bad enough, the boy was soaked to the bone, shivering because of the cold, and he was growing pale. But that was only the tip of the iceberg, the bottom of the iceberg was that the chakra ropes holding him, even if they were only a half of an inch think, was slowly tightening around the boy, crushing him.

Working fast, Arashi siphoned the chakra from the ropes and into the ground, since chakra could not be destroyed but had to be converted into other uses. Strangely enough, there was not much chakra in the ropes, which was weird in itself, but he did no have time to think about that. After the ropes were released, Arashi made a few hand seals and placed his hands over Naruto's chest, thanking Tsunade that she forcibly taught him some med-nin techniques. This particular jutsu was used to let the user tell exactly what was wrong with the patient when they were seriously injured in more than one area or out cold. It did not have a name really, since Tsunade made it up and never bothered to name it, just use it, and it was quite helpful at the moment since Naruto did not seem to be there mentally.

'Shit,' the Yondaime thought. The boy had a concussion and need to stay awake until a real med-nin could take care of him, since he had no idea whatsoever to do. Plus the boy seemed to be coming down with a fever. Thankfully he had something to help that, reaching inside his trench coat, he pulled out a little silver container and opened it. Selecting one of the pills inside and putting it back in his coat, Arashi quickly propped Naruto up on his leg so he was sitting up a little bit. Pushing the pill in between his lips, the blond man tried to get him to take the pill.

"Come on, swallow the pill," the Yondaime urged and he surprisingly was rewarded with the blond swallowing the pill. A sigh of relief left his lips as the pill was swallowed, knowing that it would start to counter the cold, but he did not take time to rejoice. The boy was about to fall asleep and he could not allow that until they reached a hospital. Gentle patting the boy's face, Arashi tried to get the boy to stay awake. "Naruto, Naruto, listen to me. You mustn't fall asleep, got that? You can't fall asleep no matter what!"

"Kay," the blue eyes blond dumbly agreed as he opened his unseeing eyes a little wider. Smiling at Naruto's sheer will alone, Arashi went to pick the blond up, but ended up huddling over the boy's body when his instincts kicked in. Just in time too, because sever kunai went sailing above his head.

"You think one hit will bring me down, guess again," Mizuki sneered as he readied more kunai and shurikens, ready to attack the unknown person at anytime. He was about to attack again when he saw the person spin around and throw a kunai of their own at him, but Mizuki simple dodged it. In turn Mizuki decided to taunt that man once again, he did not seem to learn from past mistakes to well it would seem. "You missed."

"Whoever said I was aiming for you," the man countered and in a blink the man had disappeared, leaving the boy and his fox alone. Not believing his eyes, Mizuki made a quick hand seal with one hand and tried to dispel any genjutsu that might be in the area. However, nothing changed. "You really enjoy losing your opponent, don't you?"

Accompanying the voice was a kunai to his throat pushing into his skin. "How?"

"How? How come you're an amateur? How come you can't keep track of your enemy? How what?" the fourth taunted with a sneer.

"How did you get behind me?" Mizuki barked out, not afraid at the moment of death but more annoyed at the other for making a fool out of him. He had almost gotten away with stealing the scroll and killing the demon child. He was about to say more when he saw his coworker, Iruka, and one of the Yondaime's students run into site.

_"SENSEI!"_ Mizuki heard Obito yell out.

"The Yondaime?!" the traitor whispered in fright and awe as he swerved his head around to catch a glimpse of his captor. True enough, Mizuki caught a glimpse of blond wild like hair and the famous red flamed cloak, instantly knowing he was held by the Yondaime of Konoha, the Yellow Flash, Kazama Arashi. His invincible feeling suddenly gone replaced by the fear taking a hold of his whole body.

"Get Naruto and get him to the hospital immediately!" Arashi shouted out to the other two as the came closer to him. He did not need any help, but Naruto did. The two took in the situation and nodded their heads, heading towards the boy. They were just about to reach the boy when Mizuki, who had his weapons still at the ready with chakra already pumped into them, made a suicidal attempted and threw the chakra enhanced weapons towards the disoriented boy.

_"Watch out!" _the blond man yelled out when he realized what had just transpired.

Though the warning was too late, Obito and Iruka had enough time to dodge the attack, but not enough time to get Naruto. Instead the weapons hit the fall boy and caused an explosion producing smoke that covered up the area so the others could not see. Seeing that his suicidal attempted had actually distracted the others and the Yondaime, who loosened his grasp on Mizuki momentarily, Mizuki escaped from the kunai and tried to make his get away. However, Obito and Iruka cut off his get away, turning around the man tried to escape another way, but the Yondaime blocked that way. He was trapped and he would not be getting out of this alive, he knew it too. But he would be damned if he would go down without a fight.

Grapping the last of his shurikens and kunai, Mizuki threw the weapons in both directions. Once his hands were free, the man began to form hand seals.

"Sawarabi no Mai," Mizuki yelled, using the jutsu that his master had taught him before sending him out on the mission and watched as the others froze in place. Mizuki had to hurry, since he did not know how long its effects would last. What he was certain of was that the three other men were not about to move anytime soon or at least until it were to wear off. Acting quickly, Mizuki unclipped his last weapon, the last giant shuriken, from his back and threw it at the one that irritated him the most, Iruka.

_"NO!"_ Arashi yelled as he tried to break the jutsu that help him in place. However, out of the corner of his eyes, he saw something incredible. Dragging his feet and slowly walking out of the forgotten crater was the boy he had came to save. The boy that was about to save them all, for the boy put his hands in a familiar hand seal.

_"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"_

Clones of the battered blond formed right in front of Iruka and stopped the incoming shuriken by kicking it up into the air. The metal then conducted the lightning bolt that had just flashed and directed it towards Mizuki. The man then seemed to become fried and with no more chakra fueling the attack, the three found themselves free. But they did not do anything other than look at Naruto in shock. While no one could blamed them since the only one that did not pass the genin exam had just performed a jounin level jutsu. However, they were soon snapped back into reality when Naruto fell to the ground in a dead faint, his clones disappeared with a poof.

* * *

Groggily, Naruto opened his eyes only to shut them once again when he meet with intense light. Opening his eyes yet again, this time more slowly, Naruto was meet with a familiar friendly furry fox face. Smiling, the blond boy sat up and brought the fox into his lapped. Listening to the fox bark and yip at him, telling him off for not being more careful, the blond began to pet the fox trying to calm him down. After awhile, after Kyuubi realized the blond was not paying attention to him, the yipping and barking stopped and was replaced by a soft purring sound. 

"Better now?" Naruto asked his familiar and friend. Nodding his head the fox, curled up in a small ball and told the blond he was going to sleep, since he, Naruto, had caused him so much worry that he could not sleep the night before. Giggling at Kyuubi, Naruto smiled all his happiness. This was how Iruka found him when he walked into Naruto's hospital room.

"I see you're doing better Naruto," Iruka said, gaining the boy's attention.

"Iruka-sensei!" the boy exclaimed happily, giving the teacher one of his best smiles, "what are you doing here?"

"Checking up on one of my students," the teacher told him, returning the smile, "especially one that saved my life."

"You and Obito were trying to do the same for me. It's the least I could do in repayment," Naruto replied. Causing Iruka to raise his eyebrow, wondering how he knew that, since he knew that he was the first one to see Naruto awake. As if knowing what he was thinking, Naruto answered his unasked question. "Kyuubi told me so."

"Oh, is that so?" Iruka asked looking at the sleeping fox in Naruto's lap. Naruto just nodded his head and it made Iruka wonder, he never thought of it before, but Kyuubi was always with Naruto like Akamaru was always with Kiba. The two boys and their canine companions acted the same as each other, as if they could understand stand each other. He knew for a fact that the Inuzukas could communicate with dogs, but could Naruto really understand foxes? He should really look in to that, but not right now, another thing was bothering him at the moment. "Naruto, how do you know Kage Bunshin?"

When Naruto looked down, Iruka knew he hit a nerve of some type. The boy looked very sad and almost regretful and the chunnin could not figure out why. It was a drastic change from the blond's usual bright and cheerful attitude almost making it seem like it was never there. At times like these, Iruka seriously thought that no one really knew the really Uzumakis, since the boy's brothers were just as surprising as Naruto was.

"Grandma started to teach it to me before she was murdered," Naruto mumbled the last part under his breath.

"Oh," Iruka said, not really knowing what to say, but he had to ask. "Why didn't you use it during the genin exams?"

"Because you said to use Bunshin, not anything else."

Iruka looked at the boy in surprised, since the man did not know that the boy took want he said seriously. When he said Bunshin, he meant any Bunshin that they knew. Though since every other academy student only knew Bunshin, Iruka could see why Naruto thought it had to be a regular Bunshin. Then he thought of something else and a bright smile formed on his face.

"Naruto, there was someone who said they would like to meet you. Would you be willing to meet him now?" Iruka asked smiling at the boy.

"Sure!" the blond said happily, excited to know that there was someone wanted to meet him and he might make a friend, which was always a new prospect for Naruto.

"Okay, I'll get him now," the chunnin said with a smile on his face. Walking toward the door, Iruka opened up the door and poked his head outside. He seemed like he was whispering to someone right next to the door, before he moved out of the way and let the person on the outside of the door come in while he himself walked out. Iruka gave Naruto one last encouraging smile, before closing the door.

Just seeing the person made Naruto stutter, being at a lost for words, before he final managed to stutter out one word. _"Yondaime-sama!"_

Arashi chuckled at the boy's reaction and shook his head. "It's alright, you don't have to call me that, Arashi's fine. So how are you doing Naruto?"

"Good, thank you," the boy paused for a second, "Arashi-sama."

"Arashi," the Yondaime corrected, "Arashi is fine, you don't have to add the 'sama' at the end."

"Can't do that Arashi-sama, Grandma always told me to treat every Kage and Sannin with respect," Naruto replied solemn face, before he added thoughtfully, "but Obaa-chan made some exceptions, like Sandaime-ojiisan."

That caused Arashi to break out laughing. He had never heard anyone call Sarutobi old man before and it was funny since the kid was brave enough to do so and because it was also true. He himself did not have enough courage to do or say anything like that to the third and a kid only eleven did.

"You know what kid; you're one of a kind. Does Sarutobi know that you call him that?"

"Yep!" the boy said with a vulpine grin. "And he doesn't mind it one bit."

"Now that's something that I'll have to try for myself," the man laughed a bit more and was delighted to see Naruto grin up at him with a happy and kind smile. However, he did not come here to laugh and talk with the boy, no matter how much it felt right to do so, he came here for other reasons. Regardless of how much he wanted to continue this conversation with Naruto, he had to get to the really reason why he was there. "Listen Naruto, I came here to ask about last night. As you know, last night Mizuki stole the Scroll of Seals and kidnapped you, but the scroll that was with him wasn't the real scroll. Since you were with him last night, do you know what Mizuki did with the real scroll?"

"No," as the Yondaime Hokage, Arashi felt a sort of guilt for losing the Scroll of Seals that the Shodai had sealed away, but as Kazama Arashi, he was more concerned about the boy's welfare, being a father himself. While sort of, since he never really got to be a father to his son, but he had always wanted too and still did, even if his son was dead. "But I know where it is."

"Huh?" was Arashi so intelligent reply.

"You asked me what Mizuki did with the scroll, which was nothing, but I know where it is," Naruto clarified for the man. "While Mizuki was trying to capture me in the first place, I distracted him whilst a bunshin switched the real scroll with a fake duplicate with a henge. My clone then took the real scroll and hid it were no one would look for it."

The only word the Yondaime could utter out at the moment was, "Where?"

"The last place anyone would think to find a stolen scroll, the Scroll of Seals is hidden in its place in the Hokage's office, behind the small curtain that covers the bottom of the bookshelf," the blue eyed boy described exactly where the scroll was hidden. Stunned yet again by the boy and how he handled the situation while in a tight squeeze himself, it was amazing. And to think that he did not pass the genin exam yet, it was truly a mystery. A light bulb came on in Arashi's head and a grin formed on his face.

"Naruto, close your eyes," the boy cocked his head to the side, but complied with the request. When he was sure that Naruto's eyes were closed, Arashi reached up and untied his hitai-ate. Walking over to the boy, he leaned over him and tied the forehead protector around his head. Once finished, he took at couple of steps backwards and told the boy to opens his eyes while grinning like a madman. Seeing the boy slowly open his eyes, Arashi's smile widened even more, if that was possible. "Congratulations Naruto, you graduate!"

A shocked look passed through the boy's face, one that did not believe what he had just heard. Then, slowly but surely, the shocked expression faded away. Instead his expression was replaced by one of excitement and enthusiasm. Naruto then jumped up from the bed and hugged Arashi. Astonished by the sudden contacted, Arashi did not know what to do. However, after a little bit of hesitation, he hugged the boy back. An unknown feeling washing over him as he did so.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you so much, Arashi-sama!" Naruto chanted over and over again to him. Letting go of the blond man, much to his displeasure, Naruto ran back over to the bed and picked up his sleeping fox. The fox gave a yelp at the abrupt way he was woken up, but the fox did not do anything else when the boy began to tell him the excited news. "Kyuubi I graduated! I graduated from the academy! Won't Onii-chan and Ani be proud of me?!"

The fox gave an ecstatic yip and wagged his tail as if to congratulate his owner. The door to the room opened again and Iruka entered back into the room. Upon seeing his sensei, Naruto set Kyuubi back onto the bed and ran over to Iruka to tell him the news. Though instead he jumped up and wrapped his arms around the teacher's neck. Because of the momentum from his running and his weight, Naruto sent himself and Iruka tumbling to the ground.

"Iruka-sensei! Iruka-sensei! Guess what! Guess what!" Naruto all but shouted excitedly. Not giving the chunnin anytime to answer, the boy blurted out, "I graduate!"

"Congratulations, Naruto," Iruka breathed out from underneath the boy. "Though all graduates have to be at the academy in an hour, which is what I came in here to tell you."

This cause Naruto to yelp and scrabble off of Iruka, yelling, "I gotta get ready!"

Running around the room, the boy gathered his discarded clothes, since he was wearing a hospital gown, and ran into the adjacent bathroom. The two men heard Naruto rummaging around in the bathroom for a few minutes before and a few bangs. Looking at one another, they briefly wondered if the boy had not harmed himself in someway with all the noise he was making. However, they knew he was okay when the boy ran out of the bathroom wearing his usual bright neon orange jumpsuit, which made him look bigger than he actually was. Which Yondaime realized when he was carrying the boy to the hospital, that Naruto was underweight.

"Ready to go Iruka-sensei!" the hyperactive boy piped up. Grabbing the chunnin by the wrist, Naruto all but dragged the older man out of the room while shouting his goodbyes to the Yondaime. _"BYE ARASHI-SAMA!"_

Arashi just chuckled at the boy's hyperactive attitude, which strangely enough reminded him of two people at the same time. One being his student Obito. Since Obito was just like the Naruto, and still was at time, when he first meet him when meeting his first team and only team of genin. The other person that Naruto remind him of was, strangely enough, himself at a young age. He was just like the boy, hyper, a trickster, sneaky, and sly. It was almost as if Naruto was his past self or even his son. Though he himself did not know he had thought son, but his subconscious mind did.

Shaking his head, Arashi jumped out of the hospital window, a genuine smile, one that had not been seen on the Yondaime's face for a very long time, on his face. Racing from rooftop to rooftop, the blond man enjoyed the feel of freedom he got as he the wind passed through his hair. He felt free and alive, more so than he had in ten years. It was almost as if he realized that his son was still alive and right in front of him. Arriving at the Hokage Tower, Arashi went in through the window, almost giving the Sandaime a heart attack.

"Are you trying to kill me?" bellow the third.

"Awe, the old man can't take someone entering an office," the fourth laughed, causing Sarutobi eyebrow to twitch and a sour look crossed his face.

"You've been hanging around Naruto, haven't you?" the third asked knowing that only Naruto had that kind of effected on people. First it was Iruka with losing his parents and all, he did not really get close to people, but Naruto came along and changed that, since Iruka saw a little bit of himself in the boy. Then it was Obito, not feeling like he was making a difference anymore, since he was not doing very well with Sasuke, but a little blond boy changed that as well. The little boy had even worked his magic of sort on him.

"You know him? How come you never told me about him? And how did you I've been hanging around Naruto?" Arashi asked looking at the old man with a stunned look, which only caused Sarutobi to chuckle some.

"Do you remember when Konohamaru went through his major change of attitude?" when he got a nod of affirmative, the third continued, "well that's because of Naruto and his influence on Konohamaru's perspective on things. Besides he was my old teammate's grandson, how can I not know him? As for why I didn't tell you about him. Well I didn't tell you about Naruto, because I didn't know how you would react to how much he looks like you and all." Which Arashi understood, but did not say anything. "And I know you've been hanging out with him, because you're smiling a true genuine smile. One that you haven't shown in a long time, because Naruto has that kind of effect on people."

"You make good points there," Arashi said thoughtfully.

"That and I knew when you and Naruto meet you'd call me an old man. I don't know what's worse, you being a bad influence on Naruto or Naruto being a bad influence on you," Sarutobi mumbled, which caused Arashi to burst out laughing. Seeing the Yondaime laugh from the heart again, made the old Hokage smile instead of scowl and yell at his successor. "Why are you here in the first place?"

"Oh," Arashi exclaimed remembering why he was here in the first place. Walking over to the bookcase, the blond lifted the small curtain covering the space between the floor and the last shelf and sure enough, the Scroll of Seals was neat placed there on a small cushion. "The little trickster did it, just like he said."

"What?" Sandaime asked not understanding. So Yondaime processed to tell him what he had learned. How Naruto had switched the scroll with a fake using a Kage Bunshin while distracting Mizuki. Then he explained how the Bunshin had hid the scroll where no one would find it. Right inside of the Hokage Tower. After learning that tidbit of information, Arashi had made Naruto a genin and also told Sarutobi that he needed a new hitai-ate. "Well that solves one of my problems. Now I have a full team."

"What's the other problem, I may be able to help," the blond man offered.

"I don't have enough jounin to go around for all of the genin teams," the old man explained with a sigh.

"I think I might be able to help you with that one," Arashi offered with a gleam in his eye.

* * *

Naruto and Kyuubi was one of the first people to arrive at the academy and took a seat near the window, but not right next to it. Since the fox familiar was still silently tired, Naruto had placed him within an inner pocket of his jacket before zipping it up and letting the fox sleep, just like he did everyday. He, like all the other students that were arriving, waited silently, seeing as Kyuubi was asleep and he could not do any thing with him, for Iruka-sensei to arrive. After dropping Naruto off at the academy, Iruka had to run over to the Hokage Tower to pick up the assigned teams and their sensei. This left Naruto bored, so he evaluated each of the graduated students that came in through the door. 

The first to come in was a group of girls, all giggling and blushing. Naruto knew some of them by name and some of them by sight and knew that all of them hated him because of their parents influence. Though Naruto really did not care, he was not interested in girls yet. The next to come in was another group, this time a group of boys. They also did not like Naruto and he could care less, because he knew they were not good shinobi, or at least not good enough to pass the real genin exam. Which made Naruto grin, thanking his brothers for telling him about the exam that each of the jounin sensei put the genin through. The only bad part was that each jounin had their own type of exam and they were all different from one another, so Naruto could not get any more help from his brothers with that.

Feeling the wind beside him shift some, the blond turned his head and saw that Uchiha Sasuke was sitting next to him in the empty seat next the window, which was now opened, unlike before. The boy had an indifferent look on his face and was staring contently at the front of the class with his chin resting on the back of his hands. He appeared to have come through the window and looking behind him, Naruto noticed a few other genin had come through the same way. Looking back at the Uchiha, Naruto thought about the boy.

Unlike everyone else, Sasuke never showed any hatred or negative vibes towards him, but he did not talk to him either. Unknowingly, Sasuke had gained Naruto's respect since he made choices for himself and did not go with what everyone else thought. But that was not the only reason why the young Uchiha had gained his respect. Another reason he had gained Naruto's respect was because of the Uchiha Massacre and his reaction to it. Instead of being hell bent on revenge against his older brother, Sasuke devoted himself to better himself to protect instead of destroy. So he was not social with anyone of his own age, there was not a problem with that, the blond himself was not social with anyone his age, older yes and a few younger, but no one his age.

"NARUTO MOVE IT! I'M WANT TO SIT NEXT TO SASUKE-KUN!" a loud, deafening, scream was heard, right next to his ear. Wincing, Naruto remembered why he never sat next to Sasuke. Even though he respected the raven, the blond never sat by him because he was the center of attention of all of girls' affection and the girls were rabid when it came to being near him. Two of the worse were Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura, the later was the one that had just scream at him. He really did not have any interest in the girl, but he did notice many of the boys around the classroom did.

Yelping at the sudden scream into his sensitive ears, Naruto jumped and some how managed to land on the desk. Looking at the glaring Sakura, the blond slowly inched away from her and further on to Sasuke's side of the desk. Taking one last look at the angry cherry blossom, the blond tried to turn around so that he was on his hands and knees to scrabble off the desk, but everything does not go as planned. For as soon as Naruto turned and was semi-facing Sasuke, the boy behind him leaned back, knocking Naruto forward and right into a kiss with Sasuke.

At first Naruto did not know what to think and a very surprised look crossed his face. He did not know why, but during the kiss with Sasuke his stomach felt like he had eaten a live rabbit since it was flip-flopping around so much. And for a second, Naruto felt complete for the first time in his life. Though that feeling was gone a moment later, when the two pulled apart, both gagging for unknown reasons to Naruto since if felt so right to him.

Feeling a wave of killer intent behind him, Naruto turned around and saw all the girls gather in a group behind him, looking about ready to kill him at any moment. Knowing the importance of self survival and knowing that his instincts were rarely wrong, the blond let his instincts take over and ran. Thankfully, Iruka had just walked into this classroom and the Uzumaki hid behind him, knowing that no one would dare mess with the chunnin. Though the academy teacher was a little confused when Naruto hid behind him and why all the girls in the classroom looked ready to kill him, but decided not to say anything. Instead he sent Naruto to take his seat right next to Sakura and started class.

"The next step is the assignment of official duties to you all on behalf of our village. We will begin by dividing you into three-man teams. Each of which will be taught and mentored by a jounin sensei who will guide and coach you as you become familiar with your various assignments. The Hokage made the selections personally to make sure all of the teams abilities would be equal," Iruka explained to the class of graduates. He then processed to call out the three-man teams. "…Team Seven Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke-"

"OH, YEAH!" Sakura stood up and yelled, though the only ones that seemed to acknowledged her were the girls that where envious that she was on the same team as Sasuke, but most importantly, her rival, Ino.

"-and Uzumaki Naruto," Iruka continued as if there was not a loud interruption. "Your jounin sensei will be a little different then the others, so after class head up to the rooftop, you'll understand once you get there. Team Eight is, Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata, and Inuzuka Kiba, your sensei is Yuuhi Kurenai. Team Nine is Kisei Yami, Karu Yuki, and Mikazuki Tenshi, your jounin instructor is Yukimora Kage. Team Ten, Akimichi Chouji, Nara Shikamaru, and Yamanka Ino; your sensei is Sarutobi Asuma. Now that you all know who your teams are, your instructors shall come and pick up your teams in the next hour. Until then wait around and hang out with one another. Oh and Team Seven you may head to the roof now."

Obeying Iruka sensei, the three headed out of the room and up the stairs to the roof. Sasuke taking the lead with Sakura following like a love stuck fool behind him and Naruto lagging behind, confused about the whole kiss thing still, that and he was still a little afraid of Sakura. It would have been very much appreciated that the walk to the rooftop would be in silence, but Sakura did not seem to know the meaning of silence and was rambling away to the youngest Uchiha. The sad thing about that was Sasuke was not paying attention to a single thing she said.

Opening the door to the rooftop, since he was the first one there, Sasuke stopped in his tracks, making the others behind stop too, for he was blocking the door way whilst whispering a very nasty four letter word. Not understanding why he stopped, Sakura took a peek around him and almost fainted. Seeing his other two teammates reactions, made Naruto very curious and he lean over Sasuke's other side to look around him, to see what all the fuss was about. Though instead of a reaction like his teammates, Naruto's was very different. Ducking under Sasuke's arm that was still attached to the doorknob, Naruto ran out onto the rooftop.

"Obito-san!" the hyperactive blond shouted glomping the man.

"Hello Naruto-kun," Obito laughed as he dislodged the boy from his being and patted him on the head, "I see your feeling better today."

"Yep! Oh, and I wanted to thank you for last night, too! So thank you Obito-san! Oh, and thank you too, Arashi-sama," Naruto thanked the two men that he knew out of the four people on the roof. Though he had a good guess who the other two people were. If memory served him correctly, the silver haired man was Obito's rival and best friend, Kakashi, and the girl was Obito's crush, Rin, both of them Obito's teammates. "So why are all you guys here?"

"All of us shall be acting as your jounin sensei," Arashi explained to the boy and his teammates. "Since we all are still active jounin, or Hokage in my case, we really can't be a jounin sensei to a group of genin, but since we all are going to be your instructors, we can. Meaning some days we all will be there to teach you or go on missions with you as a team, and some days only one of us will be there. But rest assured one of us will always be there."

"So you'll be our sensei, Hokage-sama?" Sakura asked, since both Sakura and Sasuke now stood next to the blond boy.

"When I have free time yes, but that won't be often, other than that, these three will be your teachers," the fourth told Team Seven. "Now that's explained, how about we introduce ourselves to one another. State your name, favorite thing, likes and dislikes, hobbies, dreams, and anything else you want to tell the rest of us."

Looking around the group to see who would go first, Arashi was stunned at what he found. Rin was polishing one of her shurikens absently and not paying attention to what was going on. Obito was bugging Kakashi, since Naruto and the others' attention was diverted from him and to the Yondaime. Though what caused Arashi's eye to twitch was that Kakashi was reading that damned book again. Obito's younger cousin, Sasuke, was glaring daggers at his cousin and the Haruno, judging by the girl's pink hair, was staring at Sasuke with hearts in her eyes. Lastly, looking at Naruto, the Yondaime saw that he was looking back at him with a sheepish smile on his face and shifted his weight from one leg to the other. Well it seemed that no one was willing to go first, Arashi could understand the kids not wanting to go first, being a little squeamish around him, but his students, now that was a whole different story.

"Well it would apparently seem that I'll be going first," Arashi said, which seemed to gain everyone's attention. The group seemed to settle down, quitting whatever they were doing at the time, and listened to what the Hokage had to say. "As you know, I'm the Yondaime Hokage of Konohagakure, Kazama Arashi, and also known as the Yellow Flash of Konoha, but you can call me Arashi-sensei. I like my village and training and dislike anyone trying to destroy it or harm it in anyway. I also extreme dislike paperwork. My hobbies are hanging out with my team and the Sarutobi clan as well as spending time alone to think. My dream is to see my…village prosper as well as others without war. As for anything something else about me, well I'll tell you this, one of my favorite foods is ramen. Rin you're next."

Standing up in front of the group of sitting genin, Rin began her introduction. "My name is Rin, you don't need to know my last name, it's not important; as to what you should address me as, Rin is fine, since sensei makes me sound old. I like being around my friends and training, whilst I dislike anyone who thinks I'm weaker than they are just because I'm a girl. My hobbies are the same as my likes and as for my dream, while I want to be remembered as a good shinobi and not a weak one. Extra info on would be that I'm a med-nin and am usually working at the hospitals or recon missions because of my skills.

"I'm not legendary for my medic skills like Tsunade-hime, but I'm still pretty good. You're next Kakashi," Rin said punching Kakashi on his arm and glaring at the man. She might have liked him when they were kids, but she would never approve of him reading _porn _around _kids_.

"Oh…me?" Kakashi asked semi-seriously, looking up from his book, which caused his two teammates and sensei to glare at him. "My name is Hatake Kakashi, but do call me Kakashi-sensei. I'm the kind of person that doesn't feel like talking about his likes and dislikes. My dreams for the future are none of your business…but anyways I have a lot of hobbies. Though one thing I love is a certain dolphin and my Icha Icha Paradise books, which I'll lend them to you if you want, but damage it," the clouds around them seemed to darken, "and you'll wish you've never been born."

Suddenly Obito seemed to come out of no where and started to strangely his rival. "Don't you dare give that book to any of these kids or I'll personally burn each and everyone of your precious books and make sure you won't see thenext light of day."

The treat was, accompanied by a small flame jutsu that he held within his hands to show that he was serious. Though that was not all Kakashi got. The shuriken that Rin was holding was dangerously close to being thrown to a certain area of his autonomy that he would like to be left intake for many years to come. Also Arashi's hand was twitching, along with his eyebrow, and power seemed to be gathering, which was not a good sign. Neither was the fact that the wind seemed to come even more alive. Gulping at the looks that they were giving him, Kakashi back away.

"Don't let me _ever _see _any _of _you _with that _book_, _especially _you _Sasuke_, or you'll live to _regret _it. _Got that_?" Obito asked all of them threateningly, glaring at them. The three nodded their heads, not liking this side of Obito, and instantly he was back to his smiling demeanor. "Good, well let me begin. I like many things, and since there isn't enough time in the day to name them all I'll just have to tell you my dislikes, which are murderers, people who abandon their friends, family, teammates, or anything like that, and _Icha Icha Paradise!_ My hobbies are being me, meaning making mischief wherever I go. My current dream at the moment is to burn all Icha Icha Paradise books and starting off with Kakashi-teme's.

"Now, let's see what am I missing," Obito thought out loud, knowing he was forgetting something. "Oh, now I remember!" Obito exclaimed snapping his fingers, "Uchiha Obito is my name, but you can call me Obito instead of sensei, because I'm not like Kakashi-teme and demand respect."

"You're an Uchiha? But I thought all of them were killed, save Sasuke-kun," Sakura stated more than asked, a little shock that her Sasuke-kun was not the only Uchiha around anymore.

"Yep! One of the last of our kinds, wouldn't you say little cuz?" the older Uchiha replied lightheartedly as he threw his arm around Sasuke's shoulder as if it were a familiar matter. The boy underneath him, just grunted, which kind of confused Obito. Even thought Sasuke was not a people person, he did not ignore Obito, even if they were in public. Something was up, and Obito would find out why, later. "You go next Sasuke!"

The boy just grunted again, but complied with his older cousin's orders. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are plenty of things that I hate, but I don't see how that matters, considering as there is almost nothing I do like. My dream is to become stronger and protect those around me that are precious to my heart from a certain man."

The whole group was silent for a moment, but fore the other Uchiha broke the silence. "Mou, Sasuke you don't have to be so gloomy all of the time." This just seemed to earn Obito a glare from the boy, pouting Obito told Sakura to go; only he did not use her name, seeing as he had no idea what her name was, but the name cherry blossom head.

"I'm Haruno Sakura. My favorite thing is…well it's not a thing but it's a person. A boy and that boy is…" Sakura trailed off looking over at Sasuke, who was not looking at her, and blushed, causing Rin to roll her eyes. The girl was just like she was as a child, but even worse in some ways, she really needed help. Maybe she could help her out, instead of making the same mistake as Rin and not taking her shinobi careen seriously. "I hate Ino-pig! My hobbies are…"

"We get the point," Arashi said, a bead of sweat forming on his head, "Naruto, it's your turn."

"Okay Arashi-sama!" the blond boy piped up. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto and this," Naruto reached down his jumpsuit top and pulled out a little red fox -one that Sasuke and Sakura had never seem with the boy until now, since Kyuubi always sleep in his jacket during class- "is Kyuubi, my best friend. I like learning new thing, whether it being everyday things or shinobi techniques, I just like learning period. I also like the wind, because it's free and not trapped like so many other things. There a few other things I like as well, but those are some of the things I like the most. I dislike very few things, but I absolutely loathed snakes, well at least a few. Not all snakes are bad, just some. My hobbies are putting in to practice what I have learned and forging weapons. And that's pretty much all. Wait, I forgot my dream! My dream is to make my father proud of me."

The group was silent for awhile; they really did not know what to think of Naruto. He was very different, something not really found in Konoha. There was not really away to describe it. They just knew he was different some how.

"Since we all understand one another now," Arashi conversed with the group, seeing how everyone had introduced themselves. "Tomorrow morning we shall meet in training group seven at seven in the morning for the genin exam."

"But didn't we already pass the genin exam Arashi-sensei?" Sakura asked, for the whole group, confusedly.

"No that was only a test administered just to see whether or not you had any talent as a ninja, the really genin exam is given by your sensei, us. But the sad part is that of the twenty-seven graduates, only nine of your classmates will pass," the Yondaime said sadly. "Now get a good night sleep and come to training group seven prepared, oh and don't eat breakfast in the morning. Everyone got that?"

"Yes," the three genin replied.

"Good, you are dismissed then," the fourth said, before the three bowed and went of. Naruto, carrying Kyuubi, heading one direction and his teammates heading the other way. Tuning to the others, Arashi dismissed them as well, but not before glaring at Kakashi. "You, don't you dare bring _that _book tomorrow or Obito's dream of destroying your books will be destroyed, because I'll do it for him, using my Rasengan and Obito I expect you not to be late."

* * *

Sorry it is so late, but school has been taking up to much time. I hope it was worth the wait though. If not I'm sorry. 

And if anyone notices that I am a little hesitant about my writing lately, it is because someone told me that I suck at writing and should give it up and for awhile I was seriously thinking about doing so. Though, right now I am really not sure if I will continue on writing, but it will be slow since I am not really into it anymore because of what that person said (and no it wasn't a review that I got that made me this way).

I thank you all for the last reviews, they cheered me up a little bit when I went back an reread them after the mean person told me I suck at writing.

2/7/2008

Shi no Tenshi


	10. Of Soul Mates & Bells

**Grey Fabrication **brought up a good point. In chapter seven, in the desert it is quite hot in the day, but really cold at night and I made it sound like it was hot all throught the whole day. Though, I do know this,but just forgot about it all together. However, what made me feel really stupid was the fact that I should have really have remembered to put that fact in because _I freaken live in the desert and forgot about it!_

And I would like to thank everyone that reviewed and made me feel better about my story. It got my self-esteem about my writing up. However, even though everyone made me feel better and I thank you for the reviews, I do have to specially thank **Vree** and **kma3000** for they made me laugh, even if it was unintentional, it was what I needed.

* * *

After being dismissed, Obito ran after his little cousin and caught up with him easily. The two walked in silence, knowing that there were prying ears everywhere since everyone was curious about the only two surviving Uchihas that weren't traitors. However, that didn't mean Obito wouldn't find out what was wrong with Sasuke. No, it just meant that he would wait until they got to the Uchiha compound and they could talk alone in privet. Once there, Obito could finally pester Sasuke all he wanted. Which was exactly what they did when they took their first step into the Uchiha compound. 

"So Sasuke, what's with the moody and angst-y attitude?" the man pestered.

"Hn," was the only sound to come from twelve year old boy. He didn't even acknowledge that his cousin had said anything.

"You're rookie of the year, come on, what could be wrong?" the hyperactive Uchiha whined. "Hell, I was the dobe of my year and wasn't all moody and angst-y like you, I was actually happy!"

"Hn."

"Does it have something to do with the academy?" Obito persisted.

"Hn." Still nothing.

"Something to do with your teammates?"

"Hn." Nothing, not even a twitch of an eye.

"Something to do with the cherry blossom head?"

"Hn."

"Have a crush on cherry blossom head?"

"Hn." Well at least there was a little emotion in that one, even though that emotion was anger.

"Have a crush on Naruto-kun?"

_BANG._

"Ouch," Sasuke mumbled from his place lying in the middle of the pathway. The dobe of his year turned around and raised one of his eyebrow. He really meant his last sentence to be a joke of sort, but it seemed to hit the nail on the head. And he did what any other irrationally person would do, he busted out laughing.

"I was right?!" Obito said in between gasps of laughter. "Oh, Kami-sama! I can't believe you have a crush on Naruto-kun! I've got to tell Kakashi this! So what happened to make you like him?" The boy mumbled as he pushed himself back up, but the words couldn't be made out clearly. "What was that?"

"We kissed," the blushing boy quietly said, before added in haste, "BUT it was an accident! Someone pushed him into me!"

"But you liked it, didn't you?" the man asked, trying to make Sasuke see what he was getting at. The boy didn't say anything but nodded his head blushing profoundly all the while. "YES! I knew it! You have a crush on Naruto-kun!"

"You've already stated that," Sasuke growled out. Then a thought occurred to the boy and he looked at his cousin. "Doesn't it bother you that I might be gay? Or at least bisexual? And how do you know Naruto well enough anyways, you even put 'kun' at the end of his name."

"Am I bothered that you might be gay? Nope, not at all! Hell, Kakashi is gay and do you see me doing anything about that? I think not," Obito replied. Even if he had a gay best friend there was another reason why that Obito wasn't freaking out that his cousin was gay, cause truth be told he was bisexual himself. Though he hadn't told anyone that, as of yet. "As for how I know Naruto-kun, well I hang out with him out when I see him while your training alone and don't want my help. But you don't have to worry, I won't be trying to take Naruto-kun away from you, I am too old for him anyways, nor will I tell him you have a crush on him. Sound good?"

"Hn," was the boy's reply, though it had less of an effect than before, since he was blushing still.

"Let's go have dinner," Obito said seriously, before he turned back to his child like self and shouted, "CURRY HERE I COME!!!"

* * *

Naruto didn't know what he was going to do and didn't know what he should do. He would usually go to his brothers for help first, but since they weren't there to help him, he went to the next part of his mismatched family. That being the immortal part and maybe the Tenshi part as well if he decided to summon one of them. Going home, Naruto and Kyuubi had quick bite to eat before going outside and waiting for the immortal part of their family to arrive. They didn't have to wait long. 

A few minutes after they started waiting, the bushes rustled and four white foxes bounced out of the clearing followed by the two divine beings in their true forms. In the years that had gone by, nothing on had changed on neither the two nor their foxes. Thought what could anyone say? They were immortals. Sure they could be killed by other immortals, or humans with immortal blood, but they didn't age. The same could be said for the Tenshi, but the fact was, they couldn't die at all until their mission was complete. Yet none of it mattered to Naruto, they were his family and it didn't matter what any of them looked like. The could be ugly for all he cared as long as they were the same person on the inside.

"Inari-kaasan, Inari-jiji, your finally here!" Naruto shout with excitement as Kyuubi started frolicking with the white foxes. The foxes then pounced on Naruto, all playing around with the boy. It had become the usual routine for how they all greeted each other. Naruto would first greet the gods and Kyuubi would greet the foxes. They would then pounce on Naruto before Naruto would greet each of the foxes as well, which he now took upon himself to do. "Hello Reimei, Dei, I see you two have particularly shinny coats today. And hello to you too, Yuuyami, Yabun. You all seem to be in a good mood today."

The four foxes yelped their greetings and thanked the blond for his compliment. Naruto just smiled and petted each one of them in turn. After petting the four foxes and Kyuubi once again, the Pure One stood up and ran inside before coming back out. In his hands he carried a small pot with three cups. Setting the cups down on a relatively flat area on the ground, the boy processed to pour the freshly brewed tea into each of the cups. Handing each of the Inaris a cup, Naruto took the last one for himself and made himself comfortable on the ground as the other two did the same.

"So what's got you so worked up today that you seemed so impatient to see us?" the god asked sipping his tea.

"I kissed Uchiha Sasuke today," Naruto said, rather bluntly, wincing as he waited for the reaction and he wasn't disappointed. The tea that the god had just sipped came back out and he looked disbelieving at Naruto.

"_Nani?!_" Inari almost stuttered out, but managed to save what dignity he had left and actually didn't stutter. Turning to his sister, Inari noticed that she was just sitting there, sipping on her tea, acting as if nothing had been said. "Sister Dear, isn't there anything you have to say?"

"Actually, yes there is something I must say, Dear Brother," Inari told her brother. Turning to the blond boy, she took another sip of her tea before talking to him. "How did this come about?"

If Inari wasn't sitting on the ground, he would've fallen over. He had expected his sister to say something, _anything_, else, but not that. He had expected that his sister would start stuttering and slurring all of her words trying to get them out in a hurry, but she didn't. All she wanted to know was what had happened and that…that was actually very sensible thing to do. Not what he was currently doing. So he quieted down and listened to the boy as he told what had occurred.

"But I really don't get why I felt strange after I kissed him. I know that it is not normal, but I still do not know what it was," Naruto told them after he finished retelling the story of what happened earlier on that day. "Does it have something to do with me being a mortal Tenshi or because I am the Heir of Foxes?"

"I'm not sure," Inari said as she though about what he had just said. "It doesn't have anything to do with you being a mortal Heir of Foxes if that's what you are wondering. Do you have any ideas about this Dear Brother?"

"I can't thing of anything that would make Chibi One feel that way," Inari said softly, "maybe we should contact Shina-san and ask her if it has anything to do with being a mortal Tenshi and our Heir, because I don't think that it has anything to do with being mortal."

Nodding his head in understanding, Naruto put his cup down and moved away from the group. Biting his thumb hard enough to draw blood while gathering his chakra, a light blue color, the boy started through a set of hand seals. Finishing the last seal, the blond used his bloody finger and drew the kanji for Tenshi in the air. Strangely, the blood that flowed from the open wound while drawing the kanji didn't fall to the ground, but stayed suspended in air. Gathering raw chakra, this time a pure white color, in his hand, Naruto slammed the chakra into the floating kanji. _"Kuchiyose no Jutsu."_

Unlike other summonings, there was no sound, no poof of smoke, nor any kind of entry like that. Instead, the blood kanji glowed a bloody red before slowly fading away along with the blood and gold dust like particles fell to the ground. Once all of the dust particles hit the ground, they all glowed like the blood, but this time it wasn't a bloody red color but a pure golden color, and once they began glowing one could see that the particles fell to the ground to form another kanji. _Open_.

A bright light was released, though the others didn't even bother to look away since they'd seen the blinding light too many times to count already, and when it faded away, one could see Shina standing where the glowing kanji once resided.

"Shina-sama!" Naruto cried out as he tackled the angel with a big hug. Even though the boy had tackled her, Shina didn't even waver at kinetic energy force behind it nor looked like she was even thrown off balance in the less. Instead, she just hugged the blond boy back before the boy released her and ran back inside. While the boy was gone the angel saw the two immortals, Shina raised her eyebrow wondering what was going on.

Naruto came running back out, with another cup in his hand and poured some tea for Shina. He handing the cup to the Tenshi, the two sat down on the ground next to the immortals, whilst Naruto retrieved his own cup of tea. "What do I owe this pleasant summoning too?" the highest angel asked the group.

"We need your help with a little dilemma," the fox goddess explained to their mutual friend. During the years that had past, the immortals and Tenshi had become good friends with one another as they trained Naruto and his brothers. Though it had taken awhile for their friendship to form, they had finally gotten though each other's barriers and became friends. It was hard not too when a little blond boy that shall remain unnamed at the moment, but was currently sitting next to them, was constantly trying to get the two types of mythical beings, to the mortals of Earth, to become friends and was constantly pushing them together one way or another.

"And what might this dilemma?" Shina questioned which Naruto was happy to retell the story of what happened to him that day to the angel in great detail. The angel let the boy tell her what happened without interrupting him, so she might get all the facts. Yet she did have to laugh when the boy told her of the fox god's reaction to him kissing another boy, which earned her and the boy a glare from said god since the boy told her what happen and she had laughed. Once the story was finished, Shina sat quietly thinking about it for a moment before speaking. "I understand why you needed to summon me. However, this has nothing to do with Naruto being a mortal Tenshi."

Noticing the disbelieving stares directed towards her by one of the immortals, Shina had to sigh. Sometimes the fox god needed to look outside the box and not what was inside of it. He had just assumed that the problem wasn't something to do with the immortal part of Naruto that it had something to do with the Tenshi part and just threw out the thought of it having something to do with Naruto being mortal. At least the man's sister could look at the box itself and not just what laid within it, yet she too didn't really look outside of the box. Luckily for her, Naruto did.

"So if it has nothing to do with me being neither part Tenshi nor immortal, it has something to do with me being human. Though there's more to it than that, right?" Naruto concluded out loud as he took a sip of his tea and Shina smile at how right the Pure One was.

"That's right," the angel replied as she took a sip of her own tea, "Since Naruto is one third immortal, one third Tenshi, and one third mortal he has a portion of each of the powers. He can talk and communicate freely with canines because he was both of your Chosen One before he became your heir," Shina explained directly to both of the Inaris even though Naruto was listening too. "After he became the Heir of Foxes, Naruto could use your type of chakra, a light orange or blood red color depending on his emotions at the time. Then the powers he gained from being part Tenshi were that of the wind as well as our gold kind of chakra. Yet the wind had talked to him even before we meet and he listens, it is his familiar for the Tenshi part of him as Kyuubi is his familiar of his immortal part. Naruto also has the moral chakra, a blue color.

"Yet it's because Naruto is a Pure One that this is all happening." There wasn't any noticeable reaction from the Inaris, but Naruto had his head tilted to the side, fox like, and was looking at Shina curiously whilst all the foxes mimicked the boy's gesture. It looked cute in Shina's opinion. "Pure Ones are pure and innocent, but they are also more in tuned with their souls than any other human. So when they form a bound with someone, a Pure One can feel it in their soul and draw on the person in different ways through that bound. That's why, even though Naruto only has a wind affinity, he has a connection to water and earth as well. Since Naruto gains his water connection through Haku, who has an affinity for wind and water, and the earth connection through Gaara, who has an affinity for wind and earth."

"But I also have a connection to fire and lightning too," Naruto spoke up, "and I don't have a bound to anyone with a fire nor a lightning affinity that I know of."

"That's where you're wrong," the angel said drinking the last of her tea and handing the cup to the blond for more. The cup was soon returned to her full with more tea. "Since you are more in tune with your soul, you'll only feel like half of a whole until you find your other half. In other words, you are half of a whole and Uchiha Sasuke is, and always will be, your other half, your Soul Mate. Someone that you can't bare live without. And if I'm right, that means that Sasuke has an affinity to fire and lightning and that's where you get your connection to fire and lightning from."

"_Uchiha Sasuke_, is my _Soul Mate_?!" the blond boy wailed, "_but _I'm not into _that _kind of thing _yet!_"

"Well it is very unusual for one to find their Soul Mate so young," Shina commented, "but don't worry, you'll defiantly grow into _that _kind of thing."

"I can't believe it, Chibi One's gay!" Inari whined to the world, but all the good that did was earned a thwack upside his head from his sister. That caused him to start pouting in the corner while his sister and the high angel started to talk about what a cute couple Naruto and Sasuke would make when they grew up some and Naruto and the foxes had started to play around, bored with the conversation already.

"There's just one thing I'm curious about," Inari told the Tenshi.

"And that would be?" Shina asked the woman.

"Do you think Chibi One would be the seme or the uke?"

"_I DON'T WANT TO KNOW!!!" _a strong mature, but sounding childish at the moment, male voice could be heard ringing out through the forest surrounding Konoha coming form the male deity.

* * *

It was twenty minutes after seven in the morning and half of Team Seven still weren't there. Naruto, who had been the first to arrive at the training ground around six in the morning, was slightly dozing off leaning against one of the tree stumps with Kyuubi in his lap. Sakura was looking around the clearing worriedly for any signs of the missing half of the team, but wasn't having much luck and Rin was shaking her head wearily as she watched the girl from the tree she was sitting in. Occasionally, Rin would look over towards her sensei to make sure he wasn't about to kill anything since he was in a foul mood at the moment. 

Arashi, who was pacing back and forth in front of the dozing duo, a.k.a Naruto and Kyuubi, was muttering incoherent threats under his breath. He had specifically ordered Obito _not _to be late and what does the Uchiha do? Not only is he late, but now he made his younger cousin late as well. Then there was the fact that Kakashi was also not there yet, very unlike the jounin, which added to his already bad mood.

"ARASHI-SENSEI! IT'S _NOT _MY FAULT!"

Those were the first words out of Obito's mouth when the man arrived ten minutes later. However, one would have to admit that in Obito's case that would be early for him, considering he was usually two to three hours late. However, that wasn't what caught Team Seven's attention. No, what caught their attention was that the older Uchiha was dragging a hogged-tied, teary eyed Kakashi behind him by a rope and younger Uchiha following in the drag marks of the silver haired man with his hands in his pockets and an indifferent look on his face.

As soon as Sakura had seen Sasuke, and completely ignoring the tied up jounin, she bolted to his side and started to fawn over him. Rin, on the other hand, had just jumped from the tree and landed gracefully on the ground before walking up besides her sensei who was currently standing in front of Obito, Kakashi tied up on the ground next to him, with a strange look on his face, which clearly said 'what the hell?!' As a consequence to all the noise, the dazing duo woke up and stretched their legs before Naruto joined Rin on the opposite side of Arashi, Kyuubi on his shoulder, wondering why Obito had a crying Kakashi hogged-tied on the ground.

"Do I even want to know?" Arashi asked curiously, eyeing his silver haired student. Obito just rubbed the back of his head with a silly grin on his face and his eyes closed.

"It's like this, Sasuke and me started heading here around six thirty, because of Sasuke's nagging me to come," Obito stated, pointing towards Sasuke, which only earned him a glare from the raven, but he ignored it. "Along the way we spotted Kakashi-teme standing outside of the bookstore with his face glued to the window. I called out his name, but he didn't even respond at all and as we came closer to him, I saw why. It seemed that a new Icha Icha Paradise had been released and the story wasn't going to be opening until seven. Long story short, we fought and I had to hog-tie him and drag him here just to get here, but it took me longer than I thought to drag him here."

At first Rin and Arashi looked doubtful until Sasuke spoke up to defend his cousin, after he dislodged Sakura from his arm. "It's true Arashi-sensei, we were going to be here earlier, but Kakashi-sensei was being stubborn and slowed us down."

"Thank you for your help Sasuke," Arashi said smiling at the raven haired boy. Turning back to his hog-tied student and the prankster, the Hokage grinned evilly at the man former. "Obito, you're off the hook. As for your punishment Kakashi, I think that it's fair that you have to administer the bell test to the team as the three of us," Arashi pointed to himself, Rin, and Obito, "take the day off and relax. Everything is already set up, so have a good day and hopefully we'll see each other tomorrow."

With that the Hokage disappeared in a puff of smoke and his two untied students looked at each and shrugged. Before they too following his example and disappeared in a puff of smoke. The three, hopefully, soon to be genin all looked at each other before shrugging their shoulders and sat down in front of their hogged-tied sensei and waiting for directions.

"Okay, see that alarm clock and two bells over there?" Kakashi asked, gesturing with his head over to the stump that Naruto was sleeping against earlier. The three followed his gaze and spotted the said objects before turning back to their silvered hair sensei and nodding their heads. "Well, it's been set to go off at noon. Your challenge is to steal the bells from me before the buzzer sounds. Anyone who fails doesn't get lunch and will be tied to the tree stump while I eat your lunch in front of you."

'That why we were told not to eat breakfast,' the trio thought together unknowingly.

"All you need is just one bell…apiece," the scarecrow continued not knowing what the three were thinking, "but since there aren't enough to go around, one of you is definitely headed for the stump and who ever that is will be the first of you to fail. One of you is on your way back to the academy…and disgrace. The other rules are simple, you may use weapons of any kind and attack to kill or you'll never stand a chance. Any questions? No, good let's begin."

In stead of going off to hide, the three stood there staring at their scarecrow sensei strangely. So strangely that it finally got a reaction from Kakashi. "What?"

"Aren't you forgetting something Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked hesitantly, not really sure what to say.

"What do you mean by that?" Kakashi asked genuinely confused.

"You're still hogged-tied sensei," Naruto pointed out for his teammate who really didn't know what to say.

Looking at himself, Kakashi seemed to just notice that himself. "So I am. Would one of you mind untying me please?"

"Sure thing sensei," Naruto volunteered, taking a kunai out of his pocket and spinning it around his finger before cutting the ropes that help Kakashi. However, it would seem that no good deed would go unpunished, for once the ropes were free, Naruto found himself held with his arm behind his head and the kunai occupying that hand pointed at his neck. Kakashi standing right behind him one of his hands holding Naruto's head and another holding the boy's hand with the kunai in it, forcing it closer to his neck. Naruto and his two teammates were alarmed, not only at his predicament, but also at how fast their sensei actually moved. They hadn't seen him move at all, or at least Sakura and Sasuke hadn't, Naruto and Kyuubi both had seen it, but too surprised that their sensei would attack them to do anything.

"Lesson one in being a shinobi," Kakashi spoke out, pushing the kunai closer to Naruto's neck as the terrified boy tried to fight back against him, but wasn't succeeding and the kunai was getting dangerously close to the back of his neck, "never underestimate your opponent."

A smirk slowly soon replaced the terrified look on the blond's face, yet nobody seemed to see it. They were staring contently at the kunai that was slowly inching towards his neck and then being slightly pushed back by a shaky effort by the boy, only to repeat the whole process over again. Suddenly the kunai stopped being pushed back and forth and that's what finally caught the others attention. Looking at their teammate's face, Sasuke and Sakura saw the smirk on the blond's face, but couldn't make out the rest of his face since his eyes were being covered by his hair. Sadly, since Kakashi was standing behind him, he couldn't see this and didn't now what

"You should listen to your own advice Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said as Kyuubi, who was still riding on his shoulder, turned about and bite Kakashi's hand, the one holding Naruto's hand, without any warning. At the sudden feeling of pain and the sharp canine teeth digging into his flesh, Kakashi let go of Naruto's arm and the boy escaped his grasp before disappearing along with his fox. Looking around confused, Kakashi saw Sasuke smirking before he too disappeared and Sakura following on his heels.

'They're not half bad after all,' Kakashi thought rubbing his bleeding hand and walked over to retrieve bells on the stump. At least they didn't try and take the bells the easy way, which would be whilst he was tied up or when he was giving Naruto his first lesson in being a shinobi, one that the blond boy didn't seemed to be taught, knowing it already.

Walking around the area, Kakashi looked for the three genin and noticed that they were all very good at hiding. Yet he could still feel two faint chakra signatures coming from within the foliage. He wasn't worried about not sensing his third student seeing he might have just been deeper within the forest and couldn't be sensed that far out. He didn't understand why the boy was out that far, but he didn't take the time to think about it either. Nor did he consider the option that the boy could actually conceal his chakra. After all, Uzumakis were known for being the most surprising ninjas of all.

Pulling out his infamous orange book that his own sensei specifically told him not to bring, Kakashi began to read the book as he casually walked through the foliage not really searching for his students.

* * *

Up in a tree a few yards away from the path Kakashi was currently walking down, Arashi sat scowling at the jounin. Unlike what he had told Kakashi, him and the others hadn't left to go relax, yet the jounin already knew that. It was actually a diversion so the others would think that Kakashi was the only one testing them, when he wasn't. Sure Kakashi had the main test to see whether the group would pass of fail, but they were also testing them in their own way. 

Rin was following and observing Sakura. She was to find the girl's weaknesses and strengths. See what the girl knew and didn't know so when, not if, Arashi had a good feeling about this team, they became official genin, it would be easier to teach the girl. Obito was doing the same for Sasuke, though he already knew the boy's weaknesses and strengths, he was still watching him to see if Sasuke had learned anything new by himself without the older Uchiha knowing. That left Arashi to watch Naruto and his fox, which was actually a very difficult task.

It seemed that the boy not only learned how to do shadow clones from his grandmother, but also how to hide his chakra completely. Or that's what the Yondaime concluded upon seeing that the boy and his fox were trailing after Kakashi. The older of the two male humans didn't seem to realize that he was being followed by the younger boy and his fox. Sighing, Arashi followed after Naruto who was following Kakashi who was leaving the clearing that they were currently in.

* * *

'…Sasuke…where are you?' Sakura thought running through the forest looking for her crush. 'Kakashi-sensei must have gotten to him…_NO_, I can't think like that! I won't think like that! Not about Sasuke.' 

Catching a brief sight of Kakashi out of the corner of her eye, Sakura quickly hid in a nearby bush. Peeking around the corner, the pink haired kunocihi looked to see if the man had noticed her. Thankfully he hadn't noticed her, or so it seemed to her at least. She was soon proven wrong when she heard her sensei's voice speak to her and it wasn't coming from where Kakashi was supposed to be located.

"Sakura, behind you."

"WHAT?!" the girl cried out alarmed, turning around to see Kakashi circled by falling leaves. The leaves suddenly started to blow her way before circling around her instead of the scarecrow. Not realizing, Sakura's eyes glazed over a little bit and became half lidded. Just as suddenly as it happened, the leaves fell to the ground and Sakura's eyes became normal again. Yet the silver haired man was no where to be found. "What?! What was that? Where did Kakashi-sensei go?"

"Sakura…" a weak, almost nonexistent voice called out to the girl from behind her.

'That sounds like…' Sakura though as she whirled around to face the speaker and shouted, "Sasuke!"

Yet the horrifying sight that greeted her wasn't one she had ever wanted to see. Sasuke sat on his knees, hand resting against the base of a tree trunk to stead his balance, wounds covering his body. Blood was pouring out of his body like a flowing river and weapons littered his body as if he were a pincushion. His left leg was twisted in an unnatural direction that by any means shouldn't, and wasn't, possible when not broken. The most horrific part of it all was the fact that Sasuke's right arm was cleanly severed right above the elbow and he hand no more right arm.

"…Sa-Saku-ra…H-help…me," the battered and bloodied Sasuke pleaded with his last breathes, before falling to the ground. The young boy's body not moving anymore, no slow and steady rise and fall of his chest nor was there any ragged and shallow breathing either. Just by looking at the raven anyone could tell that the boy was dead.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" the girl screamed loud and long before screaming herself into a dead faint.

"Was that too much?" Kakashi asked out loud from his hiding place within a tree above Sakura to monitor the effects of the genjutsu as well as read his book. "Lesson two: know all the types of shinobi techniques and be able to avoid them if humanly possible. Ranging from ninjutsu, genjutsu, kenjutse, or even taijutsu know about all you can of them."

With that the silver haired sensei walked off to find his next victim, wait that wasn't right, he need to find his next student. 'Student, victim, what's the difference?' Kakashi thought as he began to walk away.

* * *

Sighing at the idiotic mistake that the young girl made, Rin was about to go collect the girl and place the girl next to one of the stumps, but didn't. That was only because her sensei was quickly grabbed her arm, almost scaring Rin out of her own skin, preventing her from doing so. After doing so, Arashi just smiled innocently at her and placed a finger over his lips to silence her. Seeing that the woman wasn't going to talk, the Yondaime pointed down and she followed his finger to the ground to see Naruto and Kyuubi walking into the clearing cautiously. 

Seeing that Kakashi wasn't anywhere insight, Naruto quickly ran over to Sakura and kneeled down by her side. The boy then began to check the girl over for any wounds, or at least that was what it seemed like to the two adults that were watching him. When the boy was satisfied that there weren't any wounds, he dragged her over the near by tree, which seemed to be hard for the small boy seeing as Sakura was taller than him, and propped her up right.

Once he was finished, the boy looked around one more time before following the path that Kakashi took. The boy's fox, however, stayed behind, unknowingly to the two people in the tree. So when the other two decided it was okay to talk, they had a little kitsune listening in on their conversation. As Kakashi said, never underestimate your opponents.

"How the hell, sensei? I didn't even sense the kid," Rin all but yelled out as soon as they were sure that the Naruto wasn't near the clearing anymore.

"He's concealing his chakra, Hoshi-san must of taught him how to before she died and over the years he must of perfected it," Arashi explained his conclusion to the jounin. Sadly, it wasn't the truth, since Naruto's chakra was now hidden thanks to his immortal and Tenshi blood. Though it was a good cover up story and the Uzumakis didn't have to come up with another false story to explain to the people around them about little things that they unintentionally did. Things which no ordinary shinobi should know until they were at least chunnin or higher, no regular genin should have been able to do what he had just done.

"Damn, that's some kid, even I can't do that just yet," Rin whistled at the Naruto's accomplishments for one so young.

"I'll say, but we still haven't seen him in action, save for the fight with Mizuki, but he was injured then and didn't do much," the blond man explained.

"Well, he still has a little over three hours until the test is over, maybe we'll see something in that time period," Rin said thoughtfully as she put her finger to her chin while looking upwards. It was what Rin would do when she was thinking about something and putting the pieces to a puzzle together in her mind. This particular puzzle went by the name of Uzumaki Naruto and she didn't have all of the pieces just yet. Something seemed to snap her back and suddenly looked at the Hokage with a questioning expression. "Do you have any idea what's up with that fox of his? It follows him everywhere he as one of the Inuzuka clan's dogs would do. Maybe Naruto has a connection with his fox like the Inuzuka clan has with their dogs, what do you think Arashi-sensei?"

"It very well possible, but don't jump to conclusions until you have all the pieces of the puzzle," the Yondaime warned the girl, before he left her to trail after Naruto like he was supposed to be doing. The Yellow Flash of Konoha never did notice the little blood red fox following him to inform the Heir of Foxes what he had just heard. Sometimes it was good to be small and unnoticeable, which was why neither Kyuubi nor Naruto complained about how small they were.

* * *

'That scream I just heard,' Sasuke thought in his mind looking around warily, 'it sounded like Sakura.' 

"The second rule of being a shinobi, one that Sakura must learn it would seem," Kakashi deadpanned, reading his book while leaning against a tree. The bells at his waist clinging together every once in awhile as he shifted slightly, reassuring Kakashi that they were still there.

"I'm not like her, I won't fall for your tricks," Sasuke said looking forward and not bothering to look behind him where Kakashi actually was. He seemed emotionless and calm on the inside, which Kakashi bought, but Obito, hidden by a genjutsu, could tell otherwise. His eyes, which were fixed forwards, but they seemed to be fighting with their owner and wanting to dart around to look for something. Or someone and Obito knew just who it was, since he was also looking around for the little vulpine like boy and his foxy friend.

"Save your boasts until you got a bell, Sasuke," Kakashi warned the seemingly over confident, though on the inside the boy was just as nervous as any other genin would be. But it wasn't that he was nervous about the test, no he was nervous about what might have happened to Naruto since there were no signs of him in the past hour and a half. "The strength of the Uchiha clan… the most elite family in Konohagakure. I'm looking forward to this; let's see how you measure up to your cousin's power level. After all he was a dead-last and look at him now, an elite jounin, but do you have the same potential as he did?"

'You'll wish you'd never said that,' both Uchihas thought at the same time, but for two different reasons. Sasuke, because he hated being compared to anyone, be it his own family name or not, and it did not help that he was always being compared to someone else ever since he could remember to make it hate even more. First his older brother and now Obito, he didn't take it lightly. He wasn't going to hide behind the name of the Uchiha clan. He was going to make his name, Sasuke, be remembered by what he did and not because of who he was; the only surviving member of the Uchiha Massacre that was there that day. As for Obito's reasoning, it was simple, he knew how much being compared to others made Sasuke mad and when he was mad, it wasn't a good sign.

'Kakashi no baka, and you say I'm the dunce?' Obito thought in his head as Sasuke spun around and threw a half a dozen shuriken straight at Kakashi without any further warning. It was a full head on assault that Kakashi merely avoided by jumping to the side, but as Kakashi usually preached; you should always look underneath the underneath.

'Hello, that's just screams trap!' Obito thought as he tried to hold his laughter in when Kakashi noticed it almost too late and narrowly avoided being made a pincushion of knives. Seeing the knives, the hidden Uchiha mentally commented to himself, 'SO that's where all my knives went!'

As Kakashi avoided the third level of the trap, Sasuke came around behind him with tremendous speed, which seemed to be in the chunnin level range, and aimed a spin kick towards his head. If it wasn't for all of Kakashi's years of training and honing his skills, he would have never blocked the boy in time. Amazing really, that the boy was already so skilled in taijutsu and it wasn't the normal Uchiha clan style of taijutsu or else Obito might have beaten him long ago if he were using it. With a few more years and some refining on the unknown style with minor changes, Sasuke's unknown style would be very formidable.

Having his ankle caught, Sasuke tried to deliver a punch towards the scarecrows head in order to get him to release him, but instead the jounin just grabbed his wrist with his free hand. Though that was just simple a diversion so when Sasuke threw his weight to kick him with his free leg, it wouldn't be noticed. Unfortunately, the tactic was discovered and blocked with an arm while still holding on to the two caught appendages, which left three appendages tied up and the free hand reaching for the bells.

Hearing the clinking of the bells being moved, Kakashi looked down just in time to see Sasuke grab hold of both of the bells. Before he could pull them off though, the silver haired man threw the rave forward while he pushed himself backwards. It was just in time too, because if Sasuke had tightened his hold on the bells anymore, when Kakashi threw him backwards he would have taken the bells with him. It was too close. They needed to find out the meaning of the test, not accomplish it individually.

"I admit it, you're neither like Sakura nor Obito," Kakashi said as both Uchihas watched him warily. Something was up and they both knew it, Obito more than Sasuke since he knew his teammate better than the boy. Though, Sasuke just smirked. He wasn't going to let what the scarecrow planned be put into action. Make a set of hand seals as fast as he could, Sasuke drew on his chakra. Kakashi and Obito both instantly recognized the jutsu, but they had different reactions.

'That skill is beyond a genin capacity, his chakra shouldn't have developed enough to perform it yet!' the scarecrow thought frantically. Obito, on the other hand, was simply bemused by Kakashi's expression and was proud of his cousin to master a chunnin level jutsu and perform it properly. He watched in satisfaction, knowing that he help the boy master the jutsu, as Sasuke inhaled a large quantity of air and released the jutsu right at the silver haired man.

"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu."

The two Uchihas watched as the flames engulfed the jounin, but were disappointed when they died away and Kakashi was nowhere to be seen. Obito knew where his rival was and was currently cursing himself for not teaching Sasuke about knowing where you enemies are at all times. The raven was looking around the area surprised, not knowing where the jounin might have hidden, since it was very unlikely that he was to flee from the battle.

'Not behind, not above, where did he go?!' Sasuke thought frantically, trying to know what Kakashi's next move would be before he could take action. "Below," he suddenly shouted out loud and was about to jump away from where he was standing, but a hand shot out of the ground and lacked onto his ankle.

"Doton: Shinju Zanshu no Jutsu," and before he knew what was happening, Sasuke was buried up to his head and Kakashi was kneeling in front of him, his book out and a smile on his face. "Good try," Kakashi congratulated the boy as he ruffled the raven's hair, but his hand was almost bit off in retaliation, "but not good enough. Well" -the silver haired man continued as he stood up and started to walk away from the buried boy- "I'm off to find the last one of you, he might have better luck figuring out the meaning of this test. After all, for the dobe of your year, he's seems smarter than he lets on. Hopefully he'll figure out this test, if not, you're all doomed to fail. Bye Sasuke."

"Shit," the Uchiha cursed, which would have earned him a thwack upside the head from Obito if he wasn't supposed to stay hidden, as he watched Kakashi leave the clearing. He knew that Naruto was the only one he hadn't gotten yet, judging from the way Kakashi talked just then, but Sasuke didn't understand what he meant. The meaning behind the test? There was actually a meaning behind this whole game like test, or at least that's how Kakashi made it seem, given that the jounin easily took him down and made a fool of him. And what the hell did he mean that there was more to Naruto than he had let on? Well he didn't graduate the first genin exam, but still showed up anyways without any problems from Iruka-sensei. That's what Kakashi probably meant. Now all he had to do was figure out what it was.

Sasuke was finally thrown back into reality when he could suddenly move more than just his neck, but not much more. Looking in front of him, the raven saw the little blood red fox, Kyuubi his mind supplied, that his crush owned was currently digging him out. Though that wasn't all, hearing heavy breathing behind him, Sasuke swerved his head to the side and got a glimpse of blond hair. As more of himself became free, Sasuke could move more, but he couldn't get his arms free as of yet and both Kyuubi and Naruto were trying to dig him out.

"Why are you doing this? Why help me when I'll just be competing against you for a bell?" Sasuke suddenly asked, cursing himself all the while for sounding so mean.

"Because," Naruto simple said as he keep digging into the hard earth with his bare hands. It didn't matter to him that the hard rocks with their jagged edges were cutting his hands and knuckle up to shreds; he was just concerned about getting the boy out of the ground. Besides, he had Kyuubi's help and with the fox's sharp claws to penetrate the earth without getting hurt like he was, the work was going much faster.

"That isn't an answer," the raven growled, smelling a strange, but familiar scent, coming from behind him. He couldn't figure out what the scent was and it was becoming irritating, because his stomach seemed to curl at the scent, telling his brain it was bad. It was making him aggravated.

"Well it is to me, so live with it," Naruto countered as he keep on digging. The rest of the time spent digging the Uchiha out of the ground was in silence. Which was actually not helping Sasuke's mood, since his mind was stuck on the fact that he couldn't do anything while being as he was and it took Naruto almost a whole hour just to dig his upper body out of the ground. However, once both of his arms were free, the Uchiha, with Naruto's help, was able to pull himself out of the ground the rest of the way.

"Thanks," Sasuke mumbled meekly as he brushed the dirt off of his clothes, not looking Naruto's way once he was free.

"You're welcome," the boy said cheerily, "that's what teammates are for anyways, and we help each other out when things are too difficult to do alone."

'When things are too difficult to do alone,' those words rang out through Sasuke's held along with what Kakashi had said about there being a meaning behind the test. It all suddenly fit together; the whole meaning behind the test was teamwork. That's what Kakashi had meant, the bells were just a distraction to break up and cause conflicted between the members of the team. Yet Naruto hadn't been fooled by the bells, since he was helping Sasuke, but did he actually know the meaning to the test himself and that was the only reason Naruto was helping him? Or was he just helping Sasuke out because he wanted to? He'd have to find out.

"Naruto, tell me truthfully, wh-" Sasuke was determined to extracted the answer from the blond, using force even if he just had a crush on the blond, but it didn't go as planned. Like so many other things that had happened to day. For once Sasuke turned around and looked towards the blond for the first time since he had freed him, which is when he caught sight of the dark red liquid running down the boy's hands. It finally clicked in his mind what that scent was and why his whole body reacted to it so violently. Grabbing Naruto's right hand, Sasuke pulled it towards his body to examine how badly the damage was done while reprimanding the blond. "What the _hell_? What did you do?"

"I was just digging you out, besides they don't hurt that bad-yoew," the end of the blond's sentence turned into a yelp of pain. Kyuubi hearing the yelp, started to rub up against Naruto's right leg and whine, trying to figure out what was wrong with the him.

"What was that? Doesn't hurt that badly you say?" Sasuke sneered as he continued to clean off the blood from the Naruto's hand with one of the alcohol saturated clothes his cousin always made him carry around in his shuriken holster. However, he wasn't complaining at the moment that Obito had always made him carry the cloth. Once he finished cleaning both hands with the cloth, Sasuke put the cloth back into his shuriken holster and came back out with a roll of bandages.

"Why are you helping me?" Naruto asked curiously after watching the boy who was supposed to be his Soul Mate clean his bloodied hands before he started to wrap them with bandages. The raven looked up at him with a glare before focusing back on his work. "I mean," Naruto continued ignoring the glare, "weren't you the one complaining about me helping you just awhile ago and now you're helping me. I really don't get that. So why help me?"

"Because you help me and I am repaying the favor, I don't like owing anyone anything," Sasuke told the boy as he finish wrapping one hand and started on another.

"I don't believe you," the blond stated, causing the raven to jerk slightly but quickly tried to hide that he just did so, "but I won't ask anymore." Sasuke sighed when he heard the rest of the blond's sentence and quickly finished wrapping the boy's other hand. Once done, the blond examined both hands and smiled at Sasuke, causing his heart to speed up. "Thank you for bandaging my hands."

"Hn," was the Uchiha's brilliant reply, though the slight blush accommodating it wasn't supposed to be showing. He watched as the Naruto, picked up Kyuubi and began walking away from him and for some strange reason unknown to him, Sasuke followed him.

* * *

Opening her eyes, Sakura looked around the clearing and wondering what happened to her groggily. Gradually, the girl started to remember that she had seen Sasuke die in front of her and was instantly wake. The cherry blossom tried to bolt up, but something was restraining her. Looking down, the genin say the reason why. She was tied to a stump and sitting on either side of her was her teammates, both unharmed saved for the bandages wrapped around Naruto's hands. 

"I see you are finally awake Sakura," Sakura heard her silver haired sensei and looked forward to see him standing in front of her whist reading his orange book, "so let me begin. Though Sakura, you might want to thank Sasuke for carrying you all the way here."

"You carried me here, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked surprised with a faint blush on her cheeks at the very thought of her beloved Sasuke-kun carrying her here without have having been ordered to do so. To her it meant there was a big hope that Sasuke had fallen for her, though that was soon shattered when Kakashi continued on.

"Though he might not have if Naruto hadn't persuaded him to, so you might want to thank Naruto too," Kakashi said obvious to the fact that he just had crushed the girl's hope. "Anyways, as I was going to say, none of you are worth about being sent back to the academy."

"Does this mean all three of us…?" Sakura asked hopefully once again, not bothering to finish her sentence.

"…are hopeless and sending you back to the academy would be a waste of Iruka-sensei's time," Kakashi deadpanned, breaking all of their hopes. "You," the scarecrow declare pointing to Sakura, "were focusing all of your attention on to Sasuke, though you didn't know where he was. You," this time the jounin was pointing his finger at Sasuke, "decided to play solo and you," lastly pointing at Naruto who was currently playing with Kyuubi in his lap, "were no where to be found. Where were you anyways?"

"I was following you throughout the whole test," Naruto simply said as Kyuubi swatted at one of his injured hands and tried to bite it in a playful manor. The boy didn't even look up when he revealed to the jounin that he had been following him throughout the whole entire time and he didn't once notice him. Naruto just continued to look fondly down at his fox while he played with him. "Though when Sakura was knocked out by your genjutsu, I stayed behind to make sure she was alright. I also stayed behind to unburied Sasuke once you buried him. After that I enlisted Sasuke's help the get Sakura back here and by that time the alarm had already gone off."

"So you were helping your teammates," the scarecrow concluded, "but why? Why help them when you could have come after me and at least tired to pass the test?"

"Because, they both want to be genin more than I do. I've already taken and failed the genin exam three times and still managed to get here. Both Sasuke and Sakura had taken it once and wanted to be genin more than I do," Naruto explained never looking up from his fox that he had stopped playing with and was now petting gently. Naruto knew that teams were usually placed in three man cells for a reason and if one failed the whole team failed, but since his team was already not normal, having three jounin and the Hokage as their sensei, than maybe it wouldn't be that way. "Besides, genin or not, I'll always try my best and keep pushing myself forward. I don't need the title of genin to grow stronger, I just have to have a will to do so."

The group was silence for awhile, trying to digest what Naruto had told them. He was willing to give up his place as a genin for the others. Even after failing the genin exam three times running, he would still give it up for Sakura and Sasuke just because they wanted it more than he did. Maybe if it have been a valid reason, such as growing stronger to protect others, or invalid reason, such as just wanting to be on the same team as Sasuke, Naruto was willing to give that up his spot of being a genin for them.

Clearing his throat and gaining the others attention once again, Kakashi went on. "Well, since none of you actually looked underneath the underneath and found the real meaning to the test. You still all fail."

"Untrue, Kakashi-sensei," Sasuke spoke up for the first time, catching all of the others attention. "The meaning of this test was teamwork. I, however, didn't realize this until it was too late and it was only with Naruto's help, however unintentional it might have been that I figured it out."

"You're not as hopeless as I first thought," Kakashi complimented, "alright, I'll give you all one last chance, but one far more difficult than our last little game with the bells. If you're prepared to continue, you may each eat one of the bento boxes. But no sharing with Sakura. She goes hungry."

"Why?" Sakura asked, talking for her stomach that was growling and not with her head.

"My word is law," their sensei said in an evil way before disappearing.

Once Kakashi was gone, Sakura watched as the two boys in her team picked up a bento box each. Looking down, as to not let anyone see her face and how hungry she was, Sakura took her punishment in silence. She tried to ignore the rumbling of her stomach and the pang of hunger from not eating breakfast, but it wasn't working like she had hoped it would. Peeking up, Sakura saw Sasuke eat another bite of food and her stomach gave a rather noisy rumble.

The ropes, securing her body to the tree stump, suddenly fell away and an untouched bento box was thrust into her hands. "Here."

"Huh?" was Sakura's undignified reply as she looked up towards Naruto, who was the one that released her and had given her his bento box. "Bu-but Kakashi-sensei told us not to…"

"It's okay," Naruto reassured the girl, "he's probably miles away by now. We need all of our strength if we are to work together and get those bells. You don't want to be a liability, now do you?"

"No, but what about you?" the kunoichi asked the blond, wondering about him.

"It's okay; I've gone without food for longer than a day, I can live without it for now. You need the food more than me," Naruto reassured the girl before he sat down and played with his fox once again. Looking at the food and looking back towards Naruto, Sakura hesitated before picking up the chopsticks and taking a bite.

As soon as Sakura swallowed her first bite of food, a small explosion of sorts went off in front of them. Kakashi came out from the middle of the explosion soon after in went off looking angry.

"YOU!" their sensei screamed coming towards them, "PASS!"

"Hunh?!" the three all looked confused

"A true shinobi seeks for the truth underneath the underneath," Kakashi explained to his flabbergast students, "in a shinobi's world, those who violate the rules and fail to follow orders are lower than trash. However, those who do not care for and support their teammates are even lower than that. This exercise is now conclude, you all pass. That's all for today, Team Seven, your duties will continue tomorrow. Until then, have a nice day."

* * *

I know this isn't a really good chapter and it hasn't been beta-ed, but that's because, yet again, I have lost another beta. It seems I go through more betas than anyone else and I really don't understand it. I don't bug them about editing my story, unless it has been more than two weeks since I've heard from them, and even them I'm understanding if they can't get to it for awhile. I just don't understand, but it looks like I need another beta and I'm asking once again for one if anyone would please help me, I would very much be thankful for it. 

And again, I have to thank everyone for their reviews on the last chapter.

**_Shi no Tenshi 902_**


	11. Team 7 First C Ranked Mission

YES!!! I've got another chapter up and it has only been 10 days -10 DAYS!!!- which is really good for me as of lately .

* * *

Sasuke's P.O.V.

"How far away is the target?" our sensei's voice asked over the headset.

"Five meters and closing. How much longer do we have to wait?" a high-pitched girl voice was heard right after.

"I'm in position," a calmer but still cheerful voice was heard despite a loud yelp in the background.

"So am I," I finally spoke, waiting for orders on what to do next.

"GO!" I heard our other sensei, and my cousin, yell over the headset and I heard the others dash forward, towards the assigned target right behind me. Yet the target jumped to the side and escaped that way. Luckily, Naruto had seemed to think ahead and Kyuubi was already positioned in the only area that we were not guarding. Though I think that scared our target even more, seeing the canine and all. It jumped towards the nearest one of our team, which was Sakura, and clung to her for dear life.

"I got the cat," Sakura said as she looked down at the cat in her arms.

"Remember our quarry has a ribbon its right ear that says 'Tiger' and make sure that there is no mistake," I heard Obito speak to all of us once again.

"Target confirmed," I spoke into the headset, wondering why both Kyuubi and Naruto seemingly tried to stay as far away from the cat as possible. Kyuubi, I could see, since he was of the canine family and canines and felines most definitely did not get along. Naruto, on the other hand, I still could not figure out why exactly. Though I would not tried not to think about it, since I was trying to distance myself from him.

"Good, then mission complete, let's return to the Hokage Tower then," Rin said over the headset before clicking it off, but I briefly registered it in the back of my mind as I began walking towards the tower, my mind still on Naruto. After my talk with Obito about my crush on my blond haired teammate, I began to really thing about what I was getting myself into if I were to go after Naruto. I know I like the blond, but everything I have ever cherished dearly has been taken away from me and the one to take it away from me was my very own older brother.

The bastard had taken everything I had ever held dearly and would always do so if I knew him, which I did. If he ever found out about my caring for the Naruto, he would take him away from me too, in the worse possible ways. He would probably kill the innocent boy right in front of me or torture him all because of me and I will not do that to him. I knew that by distancing myself from him, nothing bad would happen to the boy, which was why I was doing so.

However, Obito was starting to notice that I was distancing myself from the boy and I knew he would want an answer and that he would think that what I was doing was ridicules. He would not understand though, he is the only precious thing that Itachi had left me and that was only because Itachi forgot about our cousin. Also, Obito could protect himself from Itachi, Naruto could not, and I was not strong enough to protect him yet. Until I was, I would have to distance myself from Naruto.

'Besides, it's just a crush, I might not like him in the future and he may not like me in that way at all either,' I reasoned with myself. However, for some reason, my heart dropped at the very thought of Naruto not returning my feelings.

* * *

Regular P.O.V. 

"Poor Tiger, good little kitty-kitty. I was worried about you, I could have died!" Lady Shijimi cooed whilst smothering the poor little cat. Team 7 just watched as the cat owner was torturing it after being just 'saved' by them. Rin and Obito had turned in Team 7's mission assignments and were talking with Sandaime Hokage when Lady Shijimi had rushed into the room unannounced. Looking around the room, the woman squealed with delight once she saw Sakura holding her cat and the next thing Team 7 knew was that the Lady held the cat in her arms and was half way across the room. "Let's go little kitty-kitty." Then they were gone.

"Well that was weird," Naruto said, being the first to break the silence the whole room had fallen into once the Lady had entered.

"Agreed," the whole room said simultaneously, including the Sandaime. Kyuubi had even yipped his agreement from his position in Naruto's arms.

Clearing his throat, and gaining the other's attention around him, the Sandaime picked up a piece of paper that had a list of missions available and read it. "Baby-sitting for the council elders, run errands for neighboring villages, or to help dig up sweet potatoes… Now are there any preferences on what mission do you want or do you want me to decide for you?"

Looking towards Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto left him to answer for him. Somewhere along the way, in their short period of being a team, the small group had elected Sasuke as their team leader. Actually, it was more like when Kakashi mentioned that having one of them as a leader would make things easier, Sakura immediately elected Sasuke and Naruto did not object to it, so the rave became the leader. The young Uchiha was, also, given the position of negotiator slash diplomat, given that he was technically the head of the Uchiha clan and knew how to deal with nobles and other higher people.

In addition, Sakura took on a as well position, after having a personal training session with each of their sensei. She became their genjutsu expert and was dabbing in some med-jutsu in her spare time. So far, Sakura was excelling at the basics of genjutsu, but she was having problems with learning the fundamentals of med-nin jutsu. Sadly, Naruto and Kyuubi did not have a potion of their own on the team yet, though the blond tried not to care. He just went on being his normal happily self, not showing that it had effected him any. Which it did hurt him, deeply so, but he would not show it to the rest of his team. His family, yes; his team, no.

"Hokage-sama, with all due respect, we have been doing D-rank missions for three months without complaint. Over this time period we have gotten to know one another better and have developed our teamwork," Sasuke started calmly, making sure to keep eye contacted with the Sandaime, this allowed him to show the elderly Hokage that he was confident and assure of himself. It was a trick his father had taught him, it showed pushy nobles that he was not going to be pushed around at all. "We have also training individually to work on our own skills if we should need to fight alone. Nevertheless, with plain D-rank missions we cannot test ourselves and continue to grow if there are no harder challenges to over come and obstacle to beat. What I am saying Hokage-sama, is that with your consent, we would like to be given a higher ranked mission."

The elder Hokage of Konoha, sat there patiently, hands folded and chin resting on top of his hands in front of him. With a watchful eye, he analyzed every detail about Sasuke and his teammates as he spoke. It was true this group of students had grown, but they still had a lot more to learn come time for the Chunnin Exams, if Arashi and the others felt like they could handle it and the only way they could learn what they needed to know was if they had higher ranked missions. Nevertheless, it was not his decision to make, but Arashi's.

However, time would have it at just that moment, the Yellow Flash of Konoha walked into the room while yawning. The sleep deprived Yondaime looked as if he was about to fall over from exhaustion, but somehow managed to stay up right. No one could blame the man seeing that he had just spent last night and a good portion of the morning making sure that everything was set and in order for the up coming Chunnin Exams that as of yet, only chunnin and higher shinobi knew about. What he was doing there instead of going straight to bed, was beyond any of them, but Sarutobi could not help but silently thank him for coming in just when he was needed.

"Aw, just in time too," Sarutobi, commented as the sleep deprived Hokage sat in the chair right next to the elderly man and almost fell asleep.

"In time for what?" the confused man asked tiredly, yawning once again.

"Team 7 has just politely asked for a higher ranked mission," the Sandaime answered his question while gesturing with his hand to the team, waiting patiently with two of their sensei for their answer themselves. "And since they are your and your students' students I think it's fitting that you make the decision. Don't you agree?"

Listening to the old man, Arashi's mind suddenly started to work in overdrive. A grin suddenly spread over his face as a plan formed inside his mind. Grapping two of the scrolls sitting in front of Sarutobi, the man began to skim through the missions on the D-ranked scroll before skimming over the ones on the C-ranked scroll. Finding one he approved of, and would work for his plan, the young Kage handed the scroll to the older Kage and pointed to the mission he picked out. Looking at the mission, Sarutobi nodded his head in agreement, which seemed to cause the rest of Arashi's sleepiness to dissipate.

"I grant you your request of a higher ranked mission and give you a C-ranked mission, usually reserved for at least chunnin or higher, to escort a certain individually back to his home," Arashi announced and saw the happy looks on all of Team 7's faces, even Sasuke was slightly smiling.

"When will we meet our client?" Sasuke asked in a dignified matter, all earlier traces of his smile gone.

"You can meet him now," the Sandaime spoke, motioning with his hands towards another door, one that was adjacent to the one Arashi had entered from previously. "Please send him in."

The group turned towards the door and saw it slid open to let a middle age, border-lining old, man into the room. Gray hair with a matching gray facial hair and beady eyes made the man look older than he actually was. He had what looked to be a rope tied around his forehead and small-wired rim glass had slid down his nose. His clothes were different from what they had around Konoha, but the half-drunk sake bottle was one from the stores somewhere in Konoha.

"Are these the ones who are all supposed to escort me back home?" the half drunken man asked taking another swig from his bottle and continuing where he left off, not really giving anyone the time to answer him. "They look like a bunch of snot nose brats, especially the little runt and the rodent he's holding."

"Kyuubi's not a rodent! He's a fox!" Naruto defended his little kitsune friend before defending himself. "And I like being small, even though it has a few disadvantages, there advantages as well."

"Yea right, what could possibly be positive about being a runt or a rodent?" the man shot back, not liking how the kid was disrespecting him openly and in front of others as well.

"A lot of things, like being able to sneak around with no one noticing you," the blond boy countered again.

"Any tall person could do that as well," the man replied hotly. Obito and Rin were about to step in and either calm the boy down or divert the conversation, but they were actually wanting to know how the young boy would defend himself. Arashi also wanted to help the boy out, but he was doing a damn go job of that himself and it was also quite amusing to watch.

"But in plan sight Tazuna-san?" Naruto asked, grinning from ear to ear.

"No body could do that, no matter if you're tall or short!" Tazuna said hotly, before rethinking what the boy had just said and narrowing his eyes at the boy and the fox that was sitting on his shoulder. When exactly had the fox even gotten on his shoulder? The last time he really saw it, the thing was in the blond runt's arms. "How did you know my name runt? I don't remember telling you my name."

"You didn't, but you can learn a lot from people when you have their wallet," the Pure One said grinning, holding up a poorly made brown wallet that looked like it was about to fall apart.

"What-? How-? When did you get that?" Tazuna asked stunned, while the others were wondering the same thing as well. They had never seen him move and inch since he began the verbal fighting with the man and now he had the man's wallet. However, it did have the desired effect of proving Naruto's point. Now if they only knew how the boy had done it, the group would be very satisfied.

"I didn't, Kyuubi did," Naruto said smiling and patted said fox on the head while it gave a happy yelp of his own. Walking up to Tazuna, Naruto held the wallet out to the man with a friendly smile on his face. "No hard feelings?" the boy asked innocently.

A barely noticeable smile formed on the man's face as he took his wallet back form the boy. "I miss judged you, you're a pretty good kid after all, even though your still a runt," Tazuna told him and Naruto excepted it, knowing that was the best he would get from him right now. "As the runt said, I'm Tazuna. A bridge builder of ultimate renown and until we're safely back in my own country, where we'll be completing my next bridge, you're all expected to protected me, even if it costs you your lives!"

"Being a little melodramatic aren't we?" Obito mumbled to himself, but Rin heard and she tried to stiff her giggles. Hearing this caused the older Uchiha smile at making the girl, he still had a crush on, smile.

"Are you sure these kids can protect me?" the bridge builder asked the two Hokages hesitantly, "no offense, but their still pretty young."

"There's no call for concern," Arashi said, standing up and walking over to the bridge builder to stand right next to him, fox like grin back on his face and a twinkle in his eyes, "since I'll be along too."

"_NANI?!_" the Sandaime exclaimed, shocked. Though now he understood why the blond man had perked up once he had told him about Team 7's request for a higher mission. "You can't do that, you still have a lot of paper work to file and fill out as well as other Hokage duties."

"They take care of them for me," Arashi said, grinning madly, hooking his arms around Rin and Obito.

"_WHAT?!_" the two jounin shouted surprised.

"See, they'll do it," the blond man said before turning around to his younger team and addressed them, "we'll meet at the western gate of Konoha at seven o' clock sharp, until then get a good night sleep, eat well, and pack a bare minimum of essentials, cause we'll have a long walk head of us."

With that, the Yellow Flash made do with his namesake and disappeared in a yellow flash of little, leaving the rest of the room stunned for a few reasons. First, he had gotten out of Konoha while he had a lot of paper work to do and did it right under the Sandaime's nose. Secondly, he had some how conned two of his older students to do the work he left behind for him. Finally, he had done all of this and got away with it without any consequences.

With that, the members of Team 7, and their sensei that were there, all left, bidding the Hokage and Tazuna good-bye until their next meeting. After exiting the Hokage Tower, the group parted ways for their individually training sessions with one of their sensei. Sasuke going with his cursing cousin, who was still mad at the Yondaime for have him -and Rin- do his work for him while he went out on an easy C-ranked mission without any worries of anything-bad happening. Sakura went with Rin to practice on her genjutsu and see if she could actually use any of the med-jutsu she had been practicing. Leaving Naruto and Kyuubi by themselves. It was the Yondaime's turn to teach Naruto, but he had already left, leaving the boy alone.

Sighing, Naruto began walking home, thinking he had been forgotten, with Kyuubi on his heels. He had made it to the middle of the road when a yellow flash speed by and when the light was gone, so was the little blond boy and his blood red fox.

* * *

In a clearing not to far away from Team 7's meeting place, a flash of yellow went straight to the middle of the clearing before stopping completely. As soon as the light was gone, a man appeared with a fox kittling in his arms and a blond boy that looked like the exact replica of him was hanging by his arms wrapped tightly around the man's neck, as if he were going to die if he let go. The blond man just chuckled and set the fox down, who wobbled on his feet for a few seconds trying to walk straight before falling on the ground. After that, he had to pry the boy's hands away from his neck to set him on the ground and chuckled even more when the boy let out a yelp his eyes even further clutching close than they already were. 

"We've stopped, Naruto, you're not falling," Arashi explained to the frighten boy. After doing so, the Yondaime watched as Naruto slowly opened one of his eyes and then both before looking around to make sure he was safely on the ground. When he was satisfied that he had not actually fallen, the boy calmed down and looked over in the direction of his shaken familiar to make sure he was alright as well. "You didn't think I forgot about you, did you?"

"Um," Naruto did not really know how to answer that, since he actual did think he had been left behind and merely tried to avoid eye contacted with the man. Kyuubi's ears laid flap against his head from where he laid on the ground and it did not seem that the kitsune was going to get up anytime soon.

"You really think that lowly of me? I fell hurt," the blond haired man whined playfully.

"Sorry," the Heir of Foxes apologized to the man, but Arashi just waved it off. He was just fooling around anyways and did not really mean what he had said. Though the Yondaime was wondering how the little fox was doing, seeing as he was just lying there and not moving an inch. He did not kill the fox, did he? Nay, Naruto would be more worried about the fox if he had done so. See! Kyuubi just moved! He just tried standing up, but fell back down. Maybe he was sick?

"So what do you want to work on today, maybe taijutsu?" the Yondaime asked the boy, turning his attention to the boy instead of his fox. He also did so knowing Naruto's taijutsu was not good at all. His style was that which the academy taught to everyone. The boy's movements were jerky and awkward leaving anyone with the ability to know his next movements before he even preformed them. He left openings in his stance and his attacks rarely connected when used. Overall, Naruto needed major help in taijutsu, which Arashi helped him with when it was his turn to train the boy. Though he did not only know about the little boy's taijutsu, he knew what the others were teaching him as well.

His genjutsu, which was what Rin was to teach all of Team 7, was below average, but really thought out to make ever thing realistic. The boy's problem was he could not keep the genjutsu he was learning up for long. Naruto's kenjutsu, left up to Obito to teach to everyone in Team 7, was pretty good. He usually hit the target eight out of ten times when throwing shurikens and nine out of ten times with kunai. Obito was also teaching the boy the art of traps, otherwise used for the art of pranks. Which left Kakashi teaching Naruto and the others ninjutsu. Sadly, Naruto was not that good at that either, he had difficulty performing the simplest of ninjutsu. While both Sasuke and Sakura were moving on to more advance jutsu, he was still on the basic jutsu.

"Actually," Naruto fumbled for words, looking down at the ground whilst digging his shinobi sandals into the dirt absent-mindedly. "I was wondering if I could ask you for a favor."

Arashi's eyebrows rose into his hairline and looked at the boy surprised. Was this really the same boy that he hand been training for the past few months? The boy that refused any food offered to him when he had none? The boy that never asked for anything, even help, when he needed it the most and could not handle it on his own? The boy that tried not to be a burden to others when he was anything but and anyone was happy to help him? Now here he was now asking for a favor? Was this truly the same blond haired boy?

Hell, he would do anything the boy asked of him now, as long as it was legal.

"Which would be?" the Yondaime asked and listen as the boy quickly blurted out what he wanted. Yet, so in a rush to get out what he had to say, Naruto made it impossible for Arashi to understand what he had just said. "Excuse me, come again?"

Sighing, Naruto took a deep breath and repeated what he had just said, but more slowly and able to understand. "I was wondering if I could borrow one of your kunai, the ones you use for Hiraishin technique, please?"

"Uh, sure," the man said confused, pulling out one of the three pronged kunai that he used for the jutsu and handed it to the boy. The boy than studied the kunai very carefully before handing it back to him, grinning happily. "What was that all about?"

"I'd tell you, but where's the fun in that?" Naruto replied smiling, "so I'll show you, but first we need to go to my house."

No sooner had those words left the boy's mouth then a yellow flash of light lit up the area again before dying down and the occupants of the clearing were gone. However, a few seconds later they reappeared in front of the old run down home of the Uzumaki household. The blond boy once again hanging on for dear life to the older blond man and the red fox shaking in his arms, both had their eyes tightly closed and where whimpering. This time, instead of setting the fox down and having him fall down, Arashi held onto him and set Naruto down first before handing the fox to him. Once the boy was steadily on his feet, he glared whole-heartedly at the man.

"Would you stop doing that?" the boy asked before adding, "And how do you do that anyways? It is not the Hiraishin, I know that for sure. However, it's still too fast to be Shunshin technique, than what is it than?"

"Actually, it is the Shunshin technique, but a side effect of the Hiraishin is that, somehow, it supper charges the Shunshin and makes it faster than normal," Arashi explained to Naruto as he followed the boy around to the back of his house were there was a warn out looking forge and some slabs of metal stacked next to it. He watched as Naruto set Kyuubi down next to him gentle before he lit the forge and put two slabs of metal inside to heat up. "What are you doing? And are you going to tell me why you wanted to see my kunai?"

"I'm making a katana for Sasuke for his birthday. Obito told me it was going to be in a few days, so I thought I had time to make him something later. However, since his birthday will be during the mission, I have to make it now if I want to give it to him on his birthday," Naruto explained to the Hokage.

As he explained to Arashi about what he wanted to do, Naruto has started to collected items from around the area that he would need to make the katana. The Hokage watched the boy wondering why he would do such a thing, because as of lately, Sasuke had been avoiding the boy in the littlest ways. It was quite strange, since Obito had told him that his little cousin had a crush on the blond, but Arashi did not have time to ponder over the fact as Naruto went on.

"The reason why I needed your kunai was to see how you placed your seal on the metal. I needed to know if it was engraved into the metal itself or painted on with a brush and some ink."

Listening to the boy, Arashi found what he said to be very interesting, but he found one thing strange. "Why do you need to know about how to place seals into weaponry?"

"Well, all Uchihas are known to use Katon jutsu, some very powerful and hot, meaning they will melt the metal blade of the katana if they were ever used together. So if I set the right seals and ruins on the blade, it should keep it from melting and I was hoping to try to make it as hard as diamonds to keep the blade from either dulling, chipping, or breaking," Naruto explained, using an old worn out bellows to feed the flames and burn hotter.

"Naruto, how long have you been working with seals?" the Yondaime asked, not wanting to burst the boy's idea by telling him that a beginner working with seals wouldn't be able to do something like what he was talking about. Seals, unlike genjutsu, taijutsu, or ninjutsu that the user did not have to know how they worked to use them, a person that wanted to use any type of seal had to know everything about them before they could even try using them. Nevertheless, Naruto sound in high hopes of trying to do something and he did not want to crush his hope.

"Since I was five, I think, maybe four," the blond boy said, turning around to look at his sensei, confusedly, wondering why he was asking. However, a thought crossed his mind and the Heir of Foxes seemed to brighten up. Turning around to face the shocked Hokage, Naruto smiled at him brightly. "Would you like to see some of my work, Arashi-sama?"

Dumbly nodding his head, Arashi watched as the boy checked his forge once again before he ran inside his house. A few minutes later, the boy came running back out with a small scroll in his hands. Plopping down on the ground, Naruto set the scroll down with a spiral seal face up and made a strange seal with his hands. Whispering a few words, the spiral on the seal glowed before unwinding and becoming a straight line. The scroll then slowly unrolled itself to show a verity of different seals, some Arashi had seen before and some he had never laid eyes on.

Handing the scroll to Arashi, Naruto watched as the Yondaime looked over his seals with a calculating eye. Out of everyone that knew him, only Kyuubi had seen inside that scroll. No one else knew about his knack for seals, saving his family. This would be the first time that he would have anyone's opinion on the seals inside his scroll. He really wanted to know what the other blond thought, but he was not sure what his reaction would be. Seeing the man's eyebrows knit together, Naruto knew he was about to comment on his work and was not sure it was going to be good or bad.

"Naruto, what's with this seal? It has only three parts, but it's supposed to have six," Arashi asked, pointing to the seal he was talking about with his index finger. Looking at the seals, Naruto scrunched up his face trying to understand what the man was saying, but then realized what he was talking about and instantly understood the confusion.

"No, it has six parts. Seeing here, here, and here," the blond said pointing to three different parts of the seal in question, "these are the other three parts, but I've combined them with the exterior of the seal to make it more efficient."

"But by doing that, you're weakening the interior of the design," the Yondaime reasoned out.

"I already took that into consideration, that's why the first three parts are interloped to strengthen the interior of the seal," Naruto pointed it out on the paper. Looking at the seal again, more specifically, at how the interior designed, Arashi studied the seal once more. Finding what he was looking for, the Yondaime looked up and looked the boy in the eyes.

"Ya know what Naruto? These are really good, do you have any more that you can show me?" Arashi asked with pure curiosity, which seemed to brighten Naruto's smile even more. The rest of the evening was spent discussing Naruto's seals and other seal designs. After the Yondaime left to get a good night sleep for the mission tomorrow, Naruto went back to making Sasuke's birthday present, since the metal was now hot enough to work with. Though, as he was about to begin working the blade out, Dei came running into the clearing with a small bundle in her jaw and a note.

Taking the bundle from the vixen, the Pure One patted the fox on the head and thanked her. Yelping her reply, Dei licked the boy's cheek before trotting over to the sleeping Kyuubi and woke him up by starting to give him a bath with her tongue while he whined like a new born kit. Reading the letter, Naruto smiled and silently thanked Inari-kaasan for her kindness and help. Opening the bundle, the Heir of Foxes gasped at what was inside. Inari-kaasan had given him some stones to put into the design of the katana, but not just any stones, stones from their immortal world.

The rest of the evening and well into the night, Naruto spent working on the Sasuke's birthday present.

* * *

The next morning, Kakashi and Arashi found Naruto, holding a sleeping Kyuubi in his arms, talking to Tazuna whilst waiting for the others. Seeing them, Naruto waved enthusiastically and invited them in on his and Tazuna's conversation. Which they joined, while waiting for Sakura and Sasuke. Once the last remaining members of Team 7 showed up, the small group officially began their mission first C-ranked mission. 

The first half an hour of the trip was a silent one. Arashi was leading the group with Naruto and Kyuubi right behind him. Directly behind those two was Tazuna with Sasuke and Sakura on either side of him for protection. Bringing up the rear, Kakashi lagged behind, reading his newest Icha Icha Paradise. All this done to make sure Tazuna had maximum security from bandits and other low-level thugs that would try to kill the bridge builder.

However, after the first half an hour of silence, Sakura decided it was too quiet and wanted to make conversation. At first, she tried talking to Sasuke, but all her efforts failed, horrible. Therefore, she tried making conversation with their client. That was only because she knew she couldn't talk to Kakashi, since he was currently reading his new book and she was still uncomfortable talking to the Yondaime, even though he was her sensei, he was still the Hokage and the strongest person in Konoha. This left Sakura to talk with either Naruto or Tazuna. She chose Tazuna.

"Tazuna-san, you come from the Land of Wave, right?" Sakura asked, the slight pause in Naruto's step at the mention of the name on where they were going went unnoticed by all.

"Yea, what of it?" Tazuna said in a gruffer voice.

"Are there any shinobi in that country too?" the girl asked, what seemed like curiosity, but she was actually just being nosy.

"No, there isn't any shinobi in my country, save for the missing-nins that hide out there or the ones that are just passing through," Tazuna said, taking a big gulp of his sake, downing about half of it. "Shouldn't you be asking your teacher this stuff?"

Blushing she looked towards both her sensei in turn and surprising Kakashi's head was not stuck in his book, but listening to their conversation. Seeing her gaze, Kakashi smiled at her, or at least it looked like he was smiling at her with his only visible eye up turned. The rest of his face covered, his black mask and forehead protector making sure of that. Marking the page he was on in his book, the scarecrow put the book inside his shuriken holster and pulled out a small scroll.

Handing it to Sakura, Kakashi started on his mini lesson about the different countries and what not. "Nami no Kuni, as Tazuna said, doesn't have any shinobi, but as a general rule, even with all the differences that exist in local customs and cultures, most other lands have their own hidden village where all the shinobi clans reside."

As her silver haired sensei talked, Sakura unrolled the scroll bestowed upon her before looking inside. Drawn on the inside of the scroll was a map, which was labeled with symbols and had been color-coded as well. Upon unrolling the scroll even further, the cherry blossom found the key for the symbols and colors and their meanings. The map was divided up into many different countries and islands; however, there were five countries with landmass far greater than any of the other areas shown on the map.

"For most of the countries on this continent, the shinobi villages serve as military force," the scarecrow continued. "They protected their own people and handle the ongoing relations with neighboring countries. Yet, the villages do not answer to the rulers of their native countries. Instead, they are on an equal footing with their government. In the case of very small island nations where an invasion would be difficult to mount, a shinobi village is regarded unnecessary. Among the various shinobi villages, in particular, those locations in the land of Konoha, Kiri, Kumo, Suna, and Iwa are large and their strengths immense. Those are called the five great lands of shinobi. They are the only places where the shinobi leaders call themselves Kages. Do you know what the five Kages are called?"

"Well, I definitely know the Hokage, meaning Fire Shadow, and since you mentioned Kiri, Kumo, Suna, and Iwa, those Kages have to been named similar to their villages," Sakura pieced together. Seeing a nod from her sensei, the pink haired girl continued. "So, I'm guessing that there's a Mizukage, or Water Shadow, for Kiri, a Raikage, or Lightning Shadow, for Kumo, and a Kazekage, or Wind Shadow, for Suna. Leaving Iwa with a Tsuchikage, or Earth Shadow, right?"

"Correct," Kakashi said, patting the girl's head. "Together, the Five Shadows are known to shinobi everywhere as the five commanders of all the tens of thousands of shinobi throughout the world."

"So I don't have to worry about encountering any foreign shinobi?" the slightly scared girl asked, rolling up the scroll and handing it back to its owner.

"Nope, you won't have to face any foreign shinobi while handling your C-ranked mission," the scarecrow reassured the girl, the grimace coming from their client not going unnoticed by the man. Seeing this, Kakashi took it upon himself to keep a closer eye on their client and their surroundings, seeing how something was definitely wrong with the man and he seemed to be hiding something.

Feeling someone right beside him, Kakashi turned to see his sensei walking right beside him. Looking forward, to where his sensei should have been, the scarecrow saw that Naruto was now leading the group and his sensei was not. Something that should have been apparent, seeing how he was walking right next to him and not up in front like he used to be. However, he ought to be use to it by now, seeing how the Yondaime would be nowhere in sight one second and right next to you the next. That or he was right next to you whilst you were talking and when you turn he was gone. It was something that he did often and it was something Kakashi should have grown used to, but it still always startled him when the man did it.

"You saw it too?" Arashi asked Kakashi in a low whisper while looking forward the whole time, not taking his eyes off the bridge builder. Seeing the jounin nod his head out of the corner of his eye, the Hokage went on. "He's hiding something and what ever it is, isn't going to be good for us."

"Do you think they can handle it?" the scarecrow whispered back, eyeing each of their three students in turn.

"I'm not sure as of yet, but there's something else I need to talk to you about. I think there is more to Naruto than he lets on," the blond man replied, his voice dropping even lower, if that was even possible. Turning his head to face his sensei, Kakashi saw that the man's eyes were focused solely on their blond student, whom was currently petting Kyuubi in his arms, leading the way to Wave. A tiny detail that Kakashi did not notice, that Arashi did, was that no one told the boy, or any of the genin, where Nami no Kuni was located and how to get there, yet Naruto was leading them the exact way without making any wrong turns.

"What do you mean sensei?" the jounin asked quietly.

"Kakashi, how good are you at seals?" Arashi asked, catching the scarecrow off guard. Were they not just talking about Naruto? What did his ability with seals have to do with anything?

"I'm not that good at them, you know that sensei, why?" Kakashi asked what little part of his face that was not covered scrunched up in confusion.

"And you've been working on them since you became a jounin up until now and you still suck at them," the Yondaime went on, ignoring Kakashi's question.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," the silver haired man grumbled. It was not his fault that he was not really good at seal, they were more complicated than any other shinobi art put together. Not only did he have to know all the inner working of the seal before using them, he needed to have precise chakra control, like a med-nin needed to have, to even make the seal. He could do small seals and some mediocre seals, but anything beyond that, Kakashi was completely hopeless; Arashi on the other hand was master of them. "You'd have to be a freaken genius to work with seals."

"Which is my point," Arashi said seriously, turning his head and looking the silver haired man straight in the eye. "Naruto is just below, or even on par, with me in seals."

"What?" Kakashi managed to choke out, almost screaming his disbelief. On par with the Yondaime Hokage? The greatest Hokage in Konohagakure's history. The man that designed a seal in just a day to hold the legendary Kyuubi no Kitsune on a fly where it would take even the most skill seals master two months to do something like that. The man said to be even beyond the level of a master when it comes to seal making. Moreover, Naruto was on par with _him_? What the _fucking _hell?

"You heard me, Uzumaki Naruto is on par with me in seals. Just look at this scroll he gave to me," Arashi said, handing over a smaller than average scroll with the Kazama clan emblem on it. Trying to open the scroll, Kakashi found that he could not do so and every time he tried, a small electric shock zapped him. Looking up at his sensei, he saw the man tap his new hitai-ate's symbol and sensed a little chakra flowing to the Yondaime's fingertips. Looking back down at the scroll, Kakashi let chakra flow into his pointer finger and slowly outlined the Kazama emblem.

When he finished tracing the emblem, Kakashi watched in wonder as the scroll unrolled itself and lay peacefully in his hands, as if it was not trying to shock him to death a few seconds ago. The seal holding the scroll close and zapping him, little was simple enough, since it was the first seal he had even learned to use correctly, excluding the electric shocking part. However, the seals that lay within the scroll made the seal on the outside look like child's play. There were so many different styles and complexities inside the scroll that made his seals look like a baby with some ink and a brush had drawn them.

"Arashi-sensei, how likely is it that Naruto just copied these seals down and used them?" Kakashi asked weakly, already knowing the answer. Since, unlike jutsu, seals could not be copied or used without knowing the seal inside and out.

"Zero to none," the Yellow Flash of Konoha replied.

"I thought so," the scarecrow replied weakly.

* * *

After Arashi had gone to the back to talk to Kakashi, Naruto had taken over the duties of leading the group to Wave. When they had first started on the mission, the blond boy did not know where they were going. Yet, when he heard where they were going when Sakura was talking to Tazuna, a feeling of dread over took him. He had only been back to Wave after his grandmother's death only once, because it brought up to many memories that he did not wish to have. The only time he had went back to Wave was after he had gotten better form his time with Kyo. However, it was only for Naruto and his brothers to pay his respect to the grave his uncle had made for Hoshi and collected anything they could carry from their old home. Other than that, he had not been back to Wave, fearing the memories that came with going back. 

To pass the time, Naruto had taken up examining his surroundings. It had been awhile since he had been outside of Konoha and traveling around from country to country with his family and he missed being out the road with his family. He liked meeting the new people and making friends with them. Seeing the countries and learning about their culture was also fun for him too. The whole experience was something that he enjoyed and missed dearly.

A gust of wind blew and whistled about the group, but the Heir of Foxes did not hear it that way. He heard something entirely different, just like the night when he meet Haku, Naruto heard a voice. The voice of the wind. It talked to him, told him thinks, though it was only in bits and fragments that he had to piece together or riddles, but he did not mind.

_Danger…No Rain…No Water…Danger, _the wind warned. At the same time, Kyuubi started to growl threateningly from within his arms before jumping out. Getting in a predatorily attacking position, the little kitsune's body hovered close to the ground and his hair was standing on end. Halting in front of the fox, Naruto looked forward to see that a puddle of water was right in the middle of the pathway and pieces together the warning. This caused him to be instantly in on guard.

Naruto opened his mouth to warn the others when Sakura ran into him from behind.

"Naruto, don't stop in the middle of the path-" Sakura started to scold the boy. However, she did not get to finish her comment. It all happened so fast, one moment Sakura was standing there scolding her blond teammate and the next moment she was being thrown out of the way, Naruto yelling at her.

"_Get Down!_"

The next thing that the cherry blossom knew was that she was rolling on the ground and splashing of water and clanking of chains could be heard. There was then a yelp of pain from what she could only assume was Kyuubi and a chocking noise. She heard shouts come from the others, but then there was no signs of any movement. Something that went unnoticed by the girl. Coming to a stop, Sakura quickly scrabbled to her feet and looked around her. What she saw frightened her to no end.

Kyuubi lay on his side, no movement coming form the usually hyperactive fox, not even a few feet away from her. Both of her sensei were wrapped up in chains, back to back as two mist ninjas pulled on the gauntlets that connected the chain to both the mist shinobi. Sasuke stood protectively in front of Tazuna, kunai in both hands, looking back and forth between where his sensei stood captive and where she once stood, where Naruto still stood. However, what frightened Sakura the most was what was happening to Naruto. He stood where she once had, the same two guys that help their sensei captive, held him captive as well.

Yet the chain was holding him in a much different way. The chain that connected the Kiri nin together was wrapped tightly around the blond boy's neck. His hands were clawing at the chain, trying to get it away from the delicate skin. Blood leaked down from his neck and hands as the barbed chain dug into his flesh. Naruto tried with all his might to gasp for air, but failed miserably. He looked on with sad eyes, pleading with the others for help.

"We'd advise you not to move, if you do, we can't insure your teammates' safety," the two pair of mist ninja holding Kakashi and Arashi spoke and to prove their point, both pairs of ninja tightened their chains holding their captives. It had no real affect on the two older captive, since it was wrapped around their bodies and they had clothing and armor underneath protecting them. Naruto on the other hand had nothing protecting his neck save for his hands trying to dislodge it from his throat. However, both his hands and neck were already covered in blood and pieces of ripped off flesh and the blood only started to flow faster when the two tightened the chain.

"Stop it!" Arashi growled out watching the blood flow from faster from the blond boy. "Stop it and we'll give you what you want!"

"You can't do that!" Tazuna shouted from his spotted from behind Sasuke, cowering from the mist ninja. "I hired you to protect me from danger! You better do so!"

"We're hired to protect you from bandits and thieves, not shinobi, if there's something you're not telling us, I'd sure like to know. Until than I'd rather save Naruto," the Hokage snapped.

"I'll tell you everything you'd like to know, after these mist shinobi are long gone," the bridge builder said on edge.

"Deal," the blond man said quickly, "Sakura, guard Tazuna, Sasuke get rid of the mizu bunshin holding Naruto."

Hearing the go ahead, Sasuke immediately jumped to Naruto's aid. His heart was already pounding a mile a minute from the adrenaline caused by the battle or seeing Naruto being hurt by the shinobi's mizu bunshin, the raven did not know. Nevertheless, what he did know was that he wanted to rip the Kiri nin into pieces. Throwing two shuriken at the first mizu bunshin, he was satisfied when the clone turned into water with a splash. Hurtling himself at the other clone, Sasuke stabbed it with a kunai and watched as that one dispelled as well.

Yet Sasuke did not have time to rejoice over his small victory. Right as he finished dispelling the second mizu bunshin, the Uchiha ran towards Naruto's falling body as fast as he could. He had enough time to break the blond's fall by putting himself underneath the blond, which saved the boy from even more pain. Though it would not matter if the blood flow did not stop soon or else the boy would die of blood loss.

Ripping one of his armbands off, Sasuke pressed it against Naruto's throat, trying to stop the blood flow. Yet the blood soaked into the white cloth way to fast and did not do any good. The blood keep on coming and coming and coming and it scared the raven. He had not seen this much blood since the Uchiha Massacre and that was still pretty fresh in his mind. He had never wanted to see another one of his precious people die, that is why he distances himself from the blond boy and look where it got him! The blond was still dieing in his arms and there was nothing he could do about it!

Feeling someone presence beside him, Sasuke turned to see the Yondaime kneeling right next to him, grimacing. Turning his head further, the raven saw Kakashi tying the two original mist shinobi together, both unconscious now. Feeling Naruto's weight being lifted off him, the Uchiha turned to see his blond sensei pulling the boy into his lap and taking the blood soaked armband from the boy's neck and looked over the wound. A green light surrounded the Hokage's hand and he quickly ran it over the bloodiest areas of the blond's neck.

Working quickly, Arashi silently thanked Tsunade, yet again, that she forced, literally, him to learn some medic ninjutsu as he accelerated the healing of Naruto's neck. Though it was hard to tell if he was doing any good at all since he could not see the boy's wound with all the blood. He could feel the loose pieces of skin hanging off of the boy's neck when he ran his hands over the bloodies area of the wound and shuttered at the mere thought of the pain the boy had to be going through. The Yondaime was so focused on healing the blond, that he was startled when a small bloody hand caught his wrist and stopped him from helping the blond anymore. Looking up, blue eyes meet matching blue eyes and the smaller blond weakly smiled at him with a genuine smile.

Naruto let go of his sensei's wrist and struggled with himself to stay awake. A buzzing noise in his ears rang out unnaturally from losing excessively blood and his throat hurt badly. His eyes were going in and out of focus and he felt horrible in general. Naruto tired to speak, but quickly stopped when a soaring pain went through his body. Vaguely the blond boy felt the Yondaime healing his bloody hands, before he passed out all together.

Arashi sighed, in relief or fear he did not know himself but sighed all the same. Naruto had finally fallen unconscious and thanked that very thing since he would not be able to feel any more pain, or so he hoped. Leaving the blond in Sasuke's care to clean up the blood and make sure he had not missed any wounds, the usually cheery man walked over towards Tazuna with a not so cheery smile on his face. Now the man held up an emotionless face, devoid of all emotions that might cloud his judgment and stop him from making the wrong choice just because of what his emotions wanted to do. He usually only reserved this face while talking to the council, nobles, and other higher ups he was not on friendly terms with.

"I believe you owe me an explanation," Arashi said, no motions evident in his words which seemed to cause both Tazuna and Kakashi to flinch. Tazuna because he couldn't tell what was coming to him for lying to the Hokage of Konohagakure, which ended up getting one of his subordinates hurt very badly and Kakashi because he knew what that voice meant, being on the receiving end of it once when he was younger. Slowly Kakashi backed away from Tazuna and went over to where Sakura was told to watch over the two unconscious mist shinobi, so not to get into the crossfire if there was going to be any and help the shaken girl out.

"Wh-ha-at d-do y-ou nee-ed to-o kn-n-now?" the bridge builder asked out, frightened beyond what he even knew was possible. He had lied not only to the entire village of Konoha about his mission report, but to the Yondaime Hokage, the man that was renowned because of the Konoha-Iwa War. Tazuna did not actually think he was going to meet the guy and have to lie to his face, though he had feared of doing just that. Yet not only did he do just that, he also had the man assigned to protect him on the mission he had _lied _about. Fate did not seem to be on his side today.

"I want to know why two chunnin level mist shinobi are after you. And not any mist shinobi, the Demon Brother that are renowned to fight on until their mission is accomplished, even at the cost of their own lives," the man said impassive, "since they were obviously watching and waiting for us. Your request for a mission, that I read over may I remind you, asked that you have an escort to protect you against any bandits, thugs, or other such people, not protect you against any shinobi of any other village. This is obviously even higher than a regular B-ranked mission is.

"To protect you from ordinary dangers until you complete the bridge you are currently constructing would be a simple thing. Nevertheless, if you expected to be a target of a ninja assault then it is beyond question that this would be classified -and priced- as a mission from jounin. You may have had your reasons, but it is never a good idea to conceal the facts when you are asking for help. As it is this mission falls far beyond the boundaries of the mission, we were assigned. Now, we need to go back to Konoha to get Naruto proper medical attention and you better have a good reason for lying or else I'll have you imprisoned in Konoha's jails for life on the account you withheld information and were the indirect cause of the near death of one of Konohagakure's young shinobi."

Taking a deep gulp and trying to get over his nervousness, so to actually sound somewhat refined, Tazuna tried to calm his racing mind. Remembering why he had lied to Konoha in the first place help a lot. Also thinking what he would be lost if he did not get the bridge that he was currently constructing help a lot too. If he did not finish the bridge, Nami no Kuni would end up like Sunagakure had, though their village had started to prosper in the last few years, he did not want his home to end up anything like what Suna had. He would not stand for his homelands to turn into one big black-market.

"As you've guessed, this mission is more dangerous than you and your students were lead to believe. There is a real scary man that wants to see me dead. You've probably heard of him, since he is a billionaire in the field of marine transportation," Tazuna explained, his voice serious for one and the bottle of sake normally in his hands gone. It made him look a lot older and worn out, but Arashi was not in the mood for melodramatics today. He probably had a lot worse things happen to him, like losing his son and wife in the same day, but Naruto really needed medical help and the blond man did not want to listen to the melodramatics now.

"You mean Gatou," Arashi stated bluntly and Tazuna nodding his head confirming the blond's suspicion. He had heard of the man only by the word of others. He was said to be one of the riches men in the world, if not the richest. The man owned a shipping company named Gatou Shipping and Transport, but Arashi heard that there was more to the man than just that. He heard that the man was no good, but never investigated further on it, for the man had nothing to do with him or his village so Gatou was not any concern of his. However, he might have made a mistake on not doing so.

"Correct. On the surface Gatou looks like he is a legitimate businessman," the bridge builder went on to explain. "The truth is that he is a ruthless murdering criminal that employs gangs and renegade shinobi to traffic in drugs and contraband. The man starts up with taking over companies and ends up with ruining entire countries. The man lives by every low and vicious trade known to man. It was just one year ago, that he set his sights on the Land of Waves and infiltrated our lands by coming under a guise of a business venture. Then the violence began and in no time at all, he had taken over our entire marine transportation and shipping industry, and we were all under his thumb!

"Gatou now has a stranglehold on all forms of transportation, the lifeblood of an island nation, and a stranglehold on all the wealth. The only thing he has to fear is what has been underway for some time…the completion of that bridge! The only reason I lied was because Nami no Kuni is not a really prosperous land. Even our lords are poor and I have no money at all. I could not afford a higher ranked mission. I'm very sorry that I've lied, but Wave really needs that bridge complete. It's our only hope."

"I see where you are coming from, being the leader of my village and all, and I would help you," Arashi spoke with authority, which got Tazuna's hopes up, but they quickly came crashing back down at the man's next words. "But as I've said before, Naruto needs medical attention, more so than I can provide him and we have to take him back to Konoha to be properly treated."

Tazuna looked crestfallen at hearing the man's decision, but an idea popped up in his mind. "Yondaime-sama," the bridge builder spoke up hesitantly, not wanting to get on the man's wrong side anymore than he already was and trying to get the man to seriously consider what he had to say. "We are already more than half way to Wave and it would take even longer to get to Konoha than Nami. If you would consider on continuing on, I can promise you when we get to Wave my daughter can treat Naruto. Please consider that if we turned back now, the bridge will never be complete and Wave will become another destroyed country by Gatou."

Looking at the man, Arashi considered what he had to say before he turned his back on him. Walking over to Sasuke, who had just finished cleaning up the blood around the blond's neck with his other armband, the Yellow Flash could see the area where the chains had dug into his throat since it was an angry pink color. Though he knew that the boy looked like he was fine on the outside, the Hokage knew different. The blond boy had lost a lot of blood and there might be something wrong with his vocal cords, seeing how the boy could not speak when he tried.

Taking Naruto from the Uchiha, that seemed unnerved, Arashi situated the boy in his hands before giving the rest of his team orders. "Sakura, go retrieve Kyuubi and make sure that nothings broken. Kakashi, send one of your dogs back to the village to get an ANBU squad out here to pick up the Demon Bothers for integration. Sasuke scout ahead some, but stay in hearing range, we do not want to be caught off guard again. As for you Tazuna, you better stay close, we won't want you to die on us now, your country depends on your bridge after all and we intend to get you there safe and sound."

"You mean-?!" the bridge builder asked in surprise not being about to finish his sentence.

"When I start to do something, I intend to finish it, for that is my nindo, that is my shinobi way. What I say, is what I do, this is who I am, and this is what I've become fighting for what I believe in. Fighting for what's right and this is what is right."

* * *

I just realized that Naruto is going to have a lot of bad things happen to him before anything really good... I've been in a happy and a depressed mood while writing this, I think you can tell where I was happy and where I was depressed... Again it is not beta-ed, but that's because I'm hopeless when comes to finding a beta.

And as anyone else notice that the SasuNaru/NaruSasu fanfictions have been lacking in the originality as of lately? All the fanficts have been the same ideas only done the authors own way. And there has been a lack of good fanart of SasuNaru/NaruSasu as well. The only reason I mention this is because when I don't feel like or have the no motivation to write I read fanfictions and look at fanart. The later of the two usually gives me ideas if the picture are interesting enough and then my motivation for writing comes back and I get my fanficts done.

Anyways, thank everyone for reviewing, I really apprecitiate all of the reviews and everyone that listen to me rant and raving. Thanks again.

Shi no Tenshi 902


	12. Missing Nins Do Not Mix

Yes, another chapter done and it has not taken me so long, but that's probably because I wanted to get this out before my vaction with no computers at all... Life sucks at times.

At this time I would like to tell you all that I should never read character profiles before writing a chapter, very strange things happen within said chapter if I do. You'll see.

* * *

Thunder rolled with a mighty force and lightning flashed across the skies, lighting up the darkened skies, if only for a split second. Rain pelted down to the ground with a fierce rage as the wind howled its discomfort. Mother Earth was in a feisty rage and did not seem to want to let up even just a little. At the time Arashi did not know if he should be cursing the storm or thanking it. The storm was a hindrance by slowing them down, but it was also a good thing too for it washed away any traces of them as the escaped from the Kiri shinobi. Though, at the same time, the rain washed away any traces that he could use to find the other half of his team, since they had been split up during the skirmish with the other Kiri shinobi.

Arashi was not really worried per se, since Kakashi was looking over Tazuna and Sakura, but he did not like how this mission was turning out, just one bad thing after another. He was not regretting taking the mission, he was just wishing it did not turn out the way it was. He knew if he even tried to turn down Tazuna's plead for help, he would never forgive himself. He would not let all those innocent people die when he could stop it. He would not go back on his nindo, not now, not ever.

'Though I sure do wish that there was shelter around here,' Arashi thought to himself, looking down at the boy in his arms that was an unhealthy pale color. The rain had flattened the blond's once spiky hair and had matted it to his head. Slightly blue lips showed that he did not have enough blood in his small little body and the small shivers indicated that he might be coming down with a fever. The little red furry bundle held tightly in his arms purred softly every now and then, but the kitsune was hurt and tired himself.

Looking over at his other student, Arashi assessed how Sasuke was handling the situation. The boy's clothing was soaked, like everything else about the group, and his eyes were darting around, on guard. A few scratches littered his boy here and there, but nothing serious, the bleeding had even stopped. Though the blond haired man did notice something that not many would, since the Uchiha hid it so well, Arashi notice that the boy was lost deep in thought. Knowing so by the slight dazed look in his eyes, and wondered what he was thinking about.

And true to Arashi observation, Sasuke was in deep thought.

Actually it was more like arguing with himself.

'Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, I am _so _stupid,' Sasuke cursed at himself.

'_I'll say_,' a little voice in the back of his head said. '_It is your fault you know. If you weren't trying distance yourself from him, you could have helped him_.'

'How was I supposed to help?' Sasuke asked his inner voice. The voice was silent for a second before grumbling incoherently.

'_Let me ask you this_,' his little voice asked with a sigh, '_would you rather know that the blond would die with you doing nothing to help him out because you are scared to get close or would you like to know that you had fought with all your being and failed than not help at all?_'

Sasuke was silent, thinking about the question in full. Though he did not really have to think about it, since he knew the answer to the question almost immediately after it was asked. Which his inner voice seemed to too, after all it was a part of him. The inner little voice was the part of him that he did not show and pushed to the back of his mind. The voice knew his most inner deepest thoughts that he himself did not realize he thought half the time. Which was probably the reason why his voice was laughing at him the moment.

"Sasuke, look up ahead, there's a house," Arashi spoke, breaking the boy out of his thoughts. Looking up, Sasuke saw that there indeed was a house, but it was not very big. It was small, almost hidden by the greenery around, but it looked cozy. It had that warm happy family feeling to it, the kind one would get when they walked into a house that has been well taken care of and well loved. Even if it looked a little rundown, the house was well maintained with the small little garden out in the front.

"Maybe the family that lives there will let us stay the night," Arashi went on, trying to sound positive, since he believed in the good hearts of everyone. Slowly they walked up to the door and let the rain pelt on them for a few seconds, weighing the pros and cons of knocking. Finally, Sasuke knocked on the door, seeing as his sensei had his hands full at the moment. At first there was no answer nor was there any movement from the inside and the group would have turned around if the door had not been all but thrown open.

There, standing in the doorway were two women. One was as tall as Arashi and the other even taller and they were obviously twins, seeing as they looked exactly like one another, save for their height. Both girls had pale skin that contrasted greatly with their long dark black hair and dark eyes. Just looking at them Arashi thought that they could be apart of the Uchiha clan, yet he knew for a fact that there were only three Uchihas left, meaning that they were not Uchihas.

"Hello," the taller of the two said, "is there something we can help you with?"

"We need help," the Yondaime said, which could be barely heard above another bout of thunder that just passed, as he looked down at the shivering blood boy in his arms.

"Oh my," the other woman exclaimed seeing the hurt blond and instantly ushered them in, "come in, come in."

Following the women inside the house, the older woman offered to take Naruto into the bedroom and lay him in bed to warm him up. Though before Arashi could answer, the woman already had Naruto, Kyuubi still in his arms, and was walking into another room, most likely the bedroom. The other sister had diverted the remaining part of the group's attention by sitting them in front of a nice warm fire place and handing them each a towel, ordering them to dry themselves. She then told the two that she was going to make them some tea and disappeared. Though the two shinobi did not notice where she went, the woman went into the same room her sister had taken Naruto and Kyuubi into.

While the two girls were gone, Arashi took the time to look around the small house. The hearth that they sat in front of was small but big enough to warm the whole entire house. There was a small table to the back of the room and cushions and rugs thrown about the hard wooden floor. There was not much furniture, but what furniture there was, it was all made of wood. Opposing the door, there were a few shelves with little knickknacks and odds and ends; and opposite to the hearth there was two doors, one of which must have lead to the bedroom and the other the kitchen. Or at least that was what Arashi thought.

It was odd that they had found the small home in the middle of the rainstorm and even strange that someone would live so far away from society seeing as they were still pretty far away from Wave and all. However, there was something off on the two females, but Arashi just could not figure it out. Something was bugging him at the back of his mind about them, something he just could not figure out. It was the same thing that the Yondaime sometimes found off about Naruto, but still could not figure out what.

Though it was pretty simple, he just did not realize it.

They had no chakra signature.

* * *

"Should we call them?" the taller of the two sisters asked the other one. Looking over the boy that currently laid on the futon with a pile of blankets covering him and the Kyuubi no Kitsune clutched in his arms as if someone were going to try and take the fox away from him at any moment. Sweat pouring down his face and his body shivering even with all of the covers over him. His slight fever had turned even worse and the two girls knew just by looking at his throat that his vocal cords were damaged badly.

"He is their Chosen One after all," her sister interjected. Waving her hand and another blanket appeared floating a few inches above the boy before falling lightly down on top of the others. Waving her hand again, a small bowl of water appeared with a towel right in front of the woman, suspended in the air. Taking the bowl, the dark haired woman kneeled down right next to the boy, dabbing the towel on his forehead before soaking it in water and ringing it out before repeating the whole process.

"Heir Tsukiyomi, Heir," the woman reminded her sister of the boy's status just as a strong wind blew causing the house to shake somewhat. "He is almost our equal, being the Heir of Foxes and part Tenshi."

"I know that he is their Heir, Amaterasu, but he'll always be Inari-kun and Inari-chan's Chosen One to me," the now identified Tsukiyomi defended herself form her place right kneeling next to Naruto, not even jumping when a rather loud thunder boomed rather closely to them.

"Yea right, and our descendants are in the next room over," the now identified Amaterasu said sarcastically, not believing her sister one bit.

"But you forget sister, one of our descendants is in the next room over," Tsukiyomi pointed out which caused the goddess next to her to stiffen, remembering that it was true and she had just unintentionally told her sister she was right.

"Just call them already," the goddess said sourly. Something the other goddesses complied with as to not anger her sister anymore than she already was. Though she had to leave her place from right beside Naruto to do so, but Amaterasu quickly took her place to make sure that the Heir of Foxes was okay, while her sister was summoning the fox deities. Though they did not come right away, this was expected, since they did have other obligations just like the rest of the gods and goddesses. Luckily both her and Tsukiyomi did not have anything to do at the moment and could help their descendant and the Heir of Foxes.

As they waited, the two goddesses took turns looking over Naruto and Kyuubi in silence. They listened to the wind howl and the thunder crash around the small house. Lightning dance around the outside, but never hitting it, coming close yes, but never hitting the house. It was really beautiful to watch as the lightning danced, but they knew that the light show was very deadly as well.

Finally, a door materialized in the side of the house and opened up to reveal the fox deities wearing heavy rain cloaks and their foxes soaking wet. As soon as the walked through the door and closed it, the door disappeared as fast as it came into existence. Sliding off the hood of their cloaks whilst their canine companions shook to get the water off of them, the fox deities took off their waterlogged cloaks only to have them disappear.

"Susanoo seems to be in a real rage this evening, I wonder what's up," the fox goddess said to her brother as they dried themselves off by snapping their fingers and becoming dry instantly.

"I'm not sure," her brother told her, before turning to the two goddess that had summoned them. "Goddess of the Sun, Amaterasu, and Goddess of the Moon, Tsukiyomi, it is a pleasure to see you once again, as is always."

"We came quickly as we could, but your brother's little storm slowed us down somewhat," Inari explained the reason that it took them so long to get there. After all, it only had been ten minutes after they were summoned and it usually took only a minute or two to get there. "So what do can we do for you two this stormy evening."

"Actually," Amaterasu said wincing somewhat, "it's not what you can do for us-"

"-it's what you can do for them," Tsukiyomi finished, pointing to Naruto and Kyuubi.

Upon seeing the boy, the fox goddess did what she did every time that he got hurt, which was not often as of lately compared to before, and began demanding to know what happened to the boy. The goddess of the sun and moon happily supplied their fellow goddess and friend with what information they knew. It was not the whole story, since they did not really know the whole story themselves, just what they had over heard from Team 7 when they were checking up on one of their last three descendants. Though they only cheeked up on only two of them, since the third had long ago fallen out of their favor and grace. He would never get the true power that came with being the descendants of both the sun and moon goddesses as well as the storm deity.

"Why didn't Sasuke try and save Chibi One?" Inari pondered out loud while his sister was working her magic on Naruto and healing him and Kyuubi of all wounds. After their Heir had gotten hurt so many times, the fox goddess thought it best that she learn some healing techniques from some of the other gods and goddesses so she could fix the boy up herself and not rely on others help. It was actually a very smart thing to do. "Chibi One is his Soul Mate after all."

"_Nani?!_" the ancestors of the Uchiha clan exclaimed together.

"What do you mean by Sasuke's, _our Sasuke_, Soul Mate?" Tsukiyomi demanded of the fox god, grabbing a hold of the top of man's kimono and bring down his face so it was mere inches away from her own.

"Y-you did-n't kno-ow?" Inari stuttered out, not liking that glint in the woman's eyes. He definitely did not want to be thrown into Tsukiyomi's own world, she could make anything and everything happen inside her world and it would only be a few seconds in the real world when it could days or weeks in her world. Then there was Amaterasu, who controlled the hottest fire there was known to any world. It was also known that Amaterasu's fire was as black as night and could burn for days if she wished it too. Inari definitely did not want to be on the receiving end of either one of their wraths and not both of their wraths at one time, but it looked like he was.

Inari just thanked Kami-sama that the last of the triplets was not there at the moment or he would be in really big trouble, judging by the size of the storm that was outside already. Susanoo was not known for his temper, but once he had one, it could be horrible. Just look at the storm he was causing outside, it was just mayhem. The sad thing about that though was that the storm was small compared to some of the storm god's other storms of rage. Just thinking about some of Susanoo's other storms made the fox god gulp in fear and shiver unintentionally.

Briefly Inari wondered if Sasuke could manage to unlock all three levels of the blood of his ancestors and the gifts that came with it. The boy's traitorous brother had unlocked the first two levels and gained both Amaterasu and Tsukiyomi's powers, which was only a fraction of what it could have been if the man still had their favor, but did not, yet neither he nor any other Uchiha that he knew of had never managed to gain Susanoo's powers that came with unlocking the third and finally level of the Uchiha blood.

"Know that our Sasuke has a Soul Mate and found him already? _No_," Amaterasu cry out. "Why the _hell _didn't you tell us?"

Now, Inari knew he was in a bad situation. He did not know what he was going to do and he did not want to be burned or have his mind sent to Tsukiyomi's world. Nor did he want to be thrown outside to deal with Susanoo's wrath either. Sadly, he had no idea how to get out of this situation and he really wish he could. How he wished he had his sister's help at the second, but she was healing Chibi One at the moment. Why did he have to go and open his big mouth?

"That's, that's-" here it comes Inari thought, readying himself for what ever the moon goddess would say or do to him, "that's _wonderful_!"

"Huh?"

"Sasuke's got a Soul Mate and not just any Soul Mate! He's got Naruto-chan! He's the sweetest boy ever," Amaterasu cooed over the boy, remembering the first time they meet him and how sweet the boy was to them, not to mention how respectful he was towards them. The boy was a perfect match for their Sasuke and they definitely approved of him already as it was. That and they were sure glade that there was no way that pink banshee would be with their Sasuke, they did not like her at all. And that was putting it lightly.

"Don't you two have guests to take care of?" the fox god asked trying understand the ancient mystery that no male had yet to understand. The workings of a female's mind. It was mind-boggling that the two goddesses were happy with the fact that Sasuke and Chibi One were Soul Mates. Also there was the fact that Tsukiyomi was still holding the top of his kimono and he was scared of her and her sister was another reason he tried to distracted them.

"Oh yea," with that the two woman quickly left, much to the male fox deity's pleasure.

* * *

"Sorry the tea took so long, I got sidetracked helping my sister out with your injured friend," Tsukiyomi said coming out of the kitchen carrying a tray with a few cups and a pot of tea on it. At the same time her sister came out of the room which held Naruto and Kyuubi.

"It's alright-" Arashi replied, leaving the end of the sentence hanging hoping the girl would fill in the rest.

"Tenpi, you can call me Tenpi and this is my sister, Tsuki," the sun goddess said for her sister, since she was currently pouring the tea for the group.

"It is very nice to meet you Tenpi-san, Tsuki-san. I'm Kazama Arashi and this is one of my students, Uchiha Sasuke, and my other student that you were help is Uzumaki Naruto," the Yondaime introduced him and his students, giving a slight bow of respect to the two women. Which Sasuke followed his example and bowed as well, but he was not really paying attention to what was going on around him at the moment. "We really appreciate your hospitality, we are complete strangers to you after all, and you two didn't have to help us."

Listening to Arashi speak, both Amaterasu and Tsukiyomi had to hide their smirks when he said they were strangers whilst looking at Sasuke out of the corner of their eyes when did so. They could see that their descendant was currently looking towards the door where Naruto was located with a worried look on his face. It would seem that the boy had already started to realize he liked the other boy. It may have just been a friendly matter at the moment or a teammate kind of way, but it would not stay that way when he hit puberty. Then he would understand what Naruto was to him, which was how it usually happened when it came to Soul Mates. Until then though, Sasuke might feel a little protective or even possessive over the little blond boy.

"It's our pleasure, we don't get a lot of people out here and me and my siblings get lonely," the moon goddess told Arashi as she handed out the cups of tea to her guests. Both of which drank greedily from the cups, savoring the warmth coming form them and asked for refills once they were done. Chuckling somewhat, Tsukiyomi refilled their cups and watched as they drank the second cup of tea with more manors.

"You say siblings, as more than one," Arashi pointed out as he took a sip of his tea as he looked at his two hostesses. The two females just smiled at the man and nodded their heads.

"You're very perspective Kazama-san," Amaterasu said, but the Yondaime interrupted her telling to call him Arashi, which she took to heart. "You see Arashi-san me and my sister are triplets along with our brother, Tomoe. Right now Tomoe's out taking care of a few things, or he was before the storm started."

What the goddesses failed to mention to the others was that their brother was the one that made the storm. They really did not need to know about it to begin with. That and they really could not tell the small group that they were immortals. Now Naruto could do it for them, but they did not really want him to, there was no reason for them to know. They liked their secrecy anyways.

"Tenpi-san, Tsuki-san, how is Naruto?" Sasuke asked, speaking up for the first time since they had arrived. He may have looked impassive on the outside as he asked his question, but his ancestors could tell that he was worried. To them, his eyes revealed all, that is why they could tell he was worried when he was looking towards where Naruto was, but to Arashi it looked like he was just being is usually self and did not caring about what was going on, probably why his question surprised the Hokage.

"Right now he's sleeping peacefully in a comfortable bed with a lot of blankets over the top of him, but before, when you and your sensei first brought him in, that's a whole different story. He was suffering from severe blood loss and the begin stages of hypothermia, which can be chalked up to being out in the cold rain for a long period of time. The poor boy also had damaged done to his vocal cords," the moon goddess answered truthfully, before she started to lie, "thankfully you got him here just in time. My sister is a very good healer and healed him right up and there won't be any permanent damage done to his vocal cords. Now all he needs is sleep."

"Oh," Sasuke said lamely, but he would not go any further than that since he found himself in a tired state.

"Why don't you two go to sleep, you two look like you needed it," the sun goddess said, noticing that the others were trying to just keep their eyes open and keep from falling asleep. Something that could have been because the day was long one and it was tiring for both of the mortals. Or it could have been the fact that the tea the goddesses had given them had a sleeping powder in it that they themselves were immune to. When Arashi opened his mouth to protest, Amaterasu beat him to it. "You don't have to worry about your teammate, we'll look after him whilst you guys rest."

With that said, the two goddesses in disguise ushered the two males into another room, which they had not seen before, and made sure the two were comfortable in the room before leaving the males alone. Once they were alone, the members of Team 7 really did not have the energy or the will power to do anything else but fall into the beds provided to them and go to sleep. They could not help it, seeing that the day had been tired physically and mentally and the unknowingly fact that there was a sleeping drug inside of them. Strangely enough, not once in the entire time that they were there did the two conscious members of Team 7, which were present, questioned why these two ladies were helping them out so much without asking for anything in return. But both felt that they could trust them.

* * *

"Bye Tenpi-sama, bye Tsuki-sama, tell Tomoe-sama hi for me," Naruto yelled waving goodbye to the two women that took care of him one last time from the hill that they stood on in the distance away from the small homely house where they had spent the night at. Kyuubi barked happily from the blond boy's shoulder where he was perched saying his goodbyes as well and wagging his tail happily. Sasuke stood a few paces behind the boy off to the right and Arashi a few paces behind him, both delighted that the boy was all better, yet Sasuke really did not show it.

When they woke up that morning, Naruto was up and about helping the two sisters prepare breakfast for them, talking happily with them. Kyuubi was at his feet begging for some scraps of food, his tail wagging and him barking every once in awhile as if to agree or disagree with what the blond was telling the sisters. When he saw that they were awake, the hyper boy bounced over to them and told them about all he had done since he woke up that morning. After they all had breakfast, they thanked both Tsuki and Tenpi for letting them stay the night and helping Naruto out. Afterwards they had to go, which the two understood.

However, when they had gotten to the top of the small hill, Naruto had turned around and started waving goodbye once again. Arashi found it amazing that the boy could be so friendly and kind to people he had never met before and then talked to them as if he knew them for years. He even talked to the two sisters about their brother as if he had met him before, but he knew the blond had never met the man before. Or that was the least to Arashi's, and Sasuke's, knowledge. Of coarse Arashi did not know that they were goddesses either nor did Sasuke, but that was understandable.

The group began walking toward Wave Country thinking that it would be the best way to find the rest of the group, seeing as that was where they were headed. Though this time Arashi was more on guard than when they began the trip, knowing now that Gatou's men were after them, even if their client was not with them at the moment. He did not want to underestimate their enemies any more, seeing that underestimating them had already happened and look where it had gotten them, Naruto was badly injured, something that he had let happen. He was not fast enough to help the boy and he was blaming himself for it. However, Sasuke was blaming himself for the very same thing as well.

So when both Arashi and Sasuke heard fighting up head, they were instantly on guard. Naruto and Kyuubi heard the fighting as well as the others, but they had a different reaction than they did. The boy's nose scrunched up and his eyes were squinted closed. Something did not feel right to him or Kyuubi, judging from the way the fox was growling. Something was definitely up and all the members of Team 7 were going to find out what it was.

Slightly speeding up their pace unconsciously, they began to made their way quickly towards the sound of fighting up ahead. As the got closer, the group could hear the sounds of the fight get clearer and clearer. There were sounds of metal hitting against metal for a while till it just suddenly stopped. Then there was a splashing noise before there were mumbles as if the fighters had stopped to talk. Suddenly a scream of fright rang out that cause the small group to start running towards the location of the scream, seeing as that the scream was very familiar to them. It was Sakura.

In the distance Arashi, who was running in front of the others, caught sight of a lake up ahead and on the lake stood a figure with a sphere of water floating beside him. On the shoreline stood a figure that looked just like the one standing on the water and two other figures that he presumed to be Sakura and Tazuna. Though what caught the Yondaime's attention was the figure on the shoreline was walking towards the two others in a threatening matter with a sword of amazing lengths in his hands.

Acting quickly, Arashi pulled out a three pronged kunai from his shuriken holster and threw it with deadly accuracy. The kunai sailed through the air and hit its target within a few seconds of leaving the man's hand. The kunai had not even completely stopped in motion before a yellow flash of light was seen and the man went flying before turning to a puddle of water, right in front of Sakura and Tazuna.

"Arashi-sensei!" Sakura cried out in relief and the kunai she was holding in front of her slightly lowered. Looking around wildly, the cherry blossom tried to spot her beloved Sasuke-kun and almost squealed in delight at seeing Sasuke if it was not for the fact that she was in the middle of a battle. Not once did the girl even realize that Naruto and Kyuubi were running right behind the boy of neither her dreams nor the fact that he was healed completely.

"Sakura, protect Tazuna-san," Arashi said seriously, never looking at the girl but keeping his eyes on the enemy and the trapped Kakashi inside the sphere of water.

"Arashi-sensei," Kakashi said weakly, disappointed in himself for being caught so easily and made a tactical error in his plan.

"How are you holding up in there, Kakashi?" the Yondaime asked knowing how the man felt and in his own way, telling the man it was alright. This seemed to brighten up the jounin's mood and a small smile spread across his masked face.

"Not so good, I'm all wet," the man said, closing both his eyes, seeing that his left eye was uncovered showing his sharingan eye, in what he would call an Obito fashion.

"Don't worry, I'll get you out of there in a second," Arashi said, looking at the other shinobi instead of ignoring him like he had been. The other met his gaze and returned it, showing that he was not scared at all. Neither of the two higher class ninjas moved an inch, save for the fact when a gust of wind blew caused the Yondaime's cloak to billow somewhat. Finally, the snapping sound of twig, that Sakura had stepped on by accident while moving closer to the bridge builder so she could better protected him, snapped them into action.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the Yellow Flash of Konoha, as well as the Yondaime Hokage," the man mocked, not moving his left hand from holding Kakashi inside the prison of water. Them man wore black long pants and cow skin armbands and legwarmers. A sword that looked just like the one the water clone was holding was strapped to his back and bandages were wrapped around the man's lower face covering it like Kakashi's face mask did. A mist hitai-ate was tilted and sideways on the man's head, but the long scratch across the symbol showed that he was a missing ninja. "I wonder what could be so important that both Copycat Kakashi and you would be sent on the same mission for and with a bunch of brats as it were."

"You know, I'd tell you, but it's none of your business, Momochi Zabuza, Demon of the Mist," Arashi said, his voice not wavering once for its seriousness tone.

"Suit yourself, but I now must ask if you would be so kindly an-"

"Don't even ask," the Hokage cut him off, before he could even ask what ever he was going to, which Arashi had a pretty good idea that it was to hand over Tazuna so he could kill the man for Gatou. There was no other explanation for why an A-class missing ninja was around these parts, if he was not working for Gatou. Besides the information that Tazuna had given him was still fresh in his mind about how the billionaire hired missing ninja, what else would sleazeballs like him be doing in a poor country like Wave.

Pulling out a three pronged kunai, Arashi fell into a fighting stance. "Now, Zabuza, shall we?"

"I would, but you'll have to give me a second," the missing ninja said as he made a one handed hand seal and a water clone rose up from the water, putting Arashi instantly on guard. However, the Yondaime watched in bewilderment as the clone walked towards Zabuza and not him. The water clone simply stuck its hand into the opposite side of the water prison than where the real Zabuza stood with his hand inside the prison. After Mizu Zabuza had his right arm inside of the prison that held Kakashi, the real Zabuza took his arm out of the prison and much to Arashi's amazement, the clone held up the jutsu. Seeing how the blond's eyes were trailed on his clone and the water sphere, Zabuza had to smirk. "You like? It's my version of Mizu Bunshin. It has its own chakra core that not only supports it, but also lets it use low level jutsu."

"Impressive, I do have to say," Arashi commented, truly amazed that the man had redesigned and made the widely known mizu bunshin as his own. Of course, he had done the same thing, only with redesigning the Shusnhin and Summoning jutsu and making it so he could summon himself. Knowing firsthand how hard it was for one to redesign a jutsu as your own, the Yondaime did have to give the missing ninja credit for doing so.

"I do have to think so myself," Zabuza said walking closer to the shoreline, but stopped a few feet way from Arashi. Falling into a fighting stance, the missing ninja made a quick hand sign and with the chakra that he had been building up as the others talked, he made the first move. "Kirigakure no jutsu."

The man suddenly disappeared from plan sight, causing Arashi to be instantly on guard. The blond's eyes darted back and forth, looking for his real target and not his clone holding Kakashi prisoner. Unlike anyone else, Arashi would not take the bait laid out in front of him. He would not chance trying to free Kakashi like the man wanted him to do and be killed whilst doing so, while he was distracted with freeing the scarecrow and his guard would be down. No, he would first fight the missing ninja and free Kakashi later, when the fight was over.

Hearing the pants and footsteps behind him, the Yondaime turned around, only to see that it was Sasuke, Naruto, and Kyuubi finally catching up with him. Both boys were panting badly and looked like they worn out somewhat already, which had Arashi making a mental note that when this was all over and done with, he would put his younger students through a physical training regiment. If they could not even run all the way over here without getting tired than they really needed to build up their strength and endurance. But the Hokage quickly pushed that thought to the back of his mind; he did not need to be distracted now. He was in the middle of a battle and being distracted could cause death, which was not want he to happen at all.

"What's up with this fog?" Sasuke asked no one in particular as he and Naruto took up guarding Tazuna with Sakura, wondering what was going on slightly. They had been running to catch up with their sensei and had not been about to make out what was happening during the fight and when they could, the fog had come out of nowhere and disrupted their vision before they could even see what was going on. However, the answer that greeted him was not one what he expected, or was it wanted.

"_There are eight targets. Throat, spinal column, lungs, liver, the jugular vein, the subclavian artery, kidney, heart_," the voice of Zabuza floated about the now to thick to see through fog along with a wave of killer intent. The pure killer intent that was coming from all around them cause Tazuna, Sasuke, and Sakura to freeze up, but both Naruto and Kyuubi did more than freeze up. They both started to shake, in fear or fright could not be told, since Naruto's head was bowed and his hair was cover his eyes and Kyuubi was going in circles. "_So many to chose from, decided what vital vulnerable shall I choice? Heh-heh."_

Sasuke was frightened beyond belief and was not thinking clearly. Yet when he caught sight of the shaking blond beside him, an image of him lying in his lap, neck bloody and him not being able to do anything to help the blond crossed his mind. The feelings that he felt during that point came floating back to him, the helplessness and depress feelings over welling him. Instantly the Uchiha's demeanor changed; he was no longer scared nor frightened, but willing and ready for what ever was going to happen next. He was not going to lose anyone else close to him just because of his own mistakes.

Arashi heard the voice as well and tried to pinpoint it, but it was nearly impossible. Mist shinobi were known for their silent killing techniques and from what he read in the bingo book about this man, he was one of the former Seven Swordsmen of Kirigakure. Though what he had read was not too good, the man was the first of the Swordsmen to betray his own homeland and try to kill the Mizukage, but he was not the last. After that, it seemed like each and every one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist tried to kill their own Kage. Yet that spoke words to Arashi about how the Kage of Kirigakure was treating his people, seeing as so many people were trying to kill him.

Felling the slight distortion of air behind him, Arashi whirled around barely able parry the giant blade trying to chop him in half from the head down. However, a kunai was placed at the Yondaime's throat; the blond Hokage knew that it was a mizu bunshin that he had just blocked. Not thinking about it, the blond man made a few hand seals with one hand discreetly.

"Hiraishin no Jutsu," the Yondaime whispered quietly and felt himself being pulled towards the seal he had placed earlier.

Zabuza watched in mild surprise that his enemy disappeared from right underneath his blade, but he knew not to underestimate his enemies nor did he possible think he could defeat the Yondaime Hokage. He held no delusions that he could and he knew that his life would turnout like this when he became shinobi. Ninjas do not usually live long and if he was going to die, he would rather be killed by an honorable person as Kazama Arashi than anyone else. That did not mean he was not going to down without a fight.

Looking around, Zabuza saw that his opponent was standing where the kunai that he used to enter the battle in the first place. Though he did not stay there for long; instead the blond man charged at him, several of his special three pronged kunai in between his fingers. Arashi threw the kunai, but none of them hit the Zabuza since none of them were meant to. Performing the seals for the Hiraishin technique and summoned himself to one of the seals on the kunai he had thrown. Before the swordsman could even see it coming, he felt a punched hit him in his spinal cord.

When he tried to turn around and attack with his sword, Zabuza felt a punch connect with his right side. Ignoring the pain, the killer turned around and swung his giant neck cleaving blade at where he thought Arashi was at, but hit empty air. At the same time a kick was sent and connected with his jaw sending him flying into the air, but he was not given the chance to even hit the ground before he was sent flying yet again by another attack that sent him soaring in the opposite direction. After that, Zabuza could not tell when or where the pain started and where it ended, all he knew was it was a constant pain coming from all around. He dully realized that he had never touched the ground since the second blow landed on his being.

Hitting dry land, Zabuza slowly stood up, ignoring the pain coming from his body. He was not a member of the Seven Swordsmen for nothing. He had dealt with more pain than this before and fought through it without complaint. This was not going to keep him down and he would not be held down by it either. Feeling something grab him from behind, Zabuza reached back behind him and grasped the Yondaime that dared tried to attack him from behind. Tightening his grasp, the missing ninja flung the being in front of him.

However, what he flung was not what he thought it was. Instead of a red and white blob that was a blond Hokage, it was a bright neon orange blond genin that he threw. A look of horror spread across his face when he saw that he had not thrown Arashi, but another. Arashi, also seeing Naruto get thrown, eyes widened in shock while wondering why Naruto had interfered. The blond man watched as Naruto went flying through the air, but just as he snapped out it to try and go catch the boy, something happened that he had never expected happened. The blond boy twisted himself in the air and landed perfectly _on top of the water_. _Genin _were _not _supposed to _know _water walking, it was a _chunnin _level chakra exercise.

"Brat," Zabuza growled out, which earned him a cheeky smile from the boy. However, the boy did something next that was a big no-no to do in battle, he turned his back on the missing ninja and turned to the Yondaime.

"Arashi-sama, it's a trap, he's not trying to kill Tazuna-san! He's been set up!" Naruto quickly said. "_We've _been set up!"

Before anyone could ask what he was talking about, the sounds of fighting finally registered to the older shinobi. The fog that was created by jutsu slowly disappeared to show Sasuke and Sakura fighting with the Demon Brothers and Kyuubi standing protectively in front of a terrified Tazuna. Sakura was using what little genjutsu she knew to weave an illusion around one of the brothers to help her gain an advantage over the mist shinobi. Sasuke, on the other hand, was using pure taijutsu to fight the other shinobi, yet both him and Sakura were not gaining any ground.

Seeing his students being attack, Arashi jumped to his the conclusion that the Demon Brothers were working with Zabuza, who had to have set them free after the group had left them and they had move on, not heeding his youngest student's warning. But what else could he think? Seeing that the missing ninja still held his oldest student within his water prison. It was the only reasonable explanation that he could come up with only knowing the information he had then.

Whirling back around to face Zabuza, Arashi glared daggers at the man. "You're working together!" the Hokage accused the other fighter, who in response started to glare daggers back at him.

"Why would I be working with scumbags like them?" the swordsman said offended that he would be placed in league with those two dimwits. "Didn't you just hear what the brat just said?"

Ignoring what Zabuza had just said, Arashi was going to attack the missing ninja when the man bet him to it. The man sent him flying with a kick and dashed onto the water. With a burst of speed, the Demon throw himself on top of Naruto who just stood there, stunned. The Yondaime was about to push himself up to go and save Naruto from Zabuza when a whistling noise and the wind parting right next to his ear made him freeze up. Looking up, he saw the mist ninja was lying on top of Naruto, still on top of the water; the boy's whole body was covered by the older man.

Looking passed them, Arashi saw a few dozen kunai embedded in the tree and if Zabuza had not pushed them out of the way, then they would have been embedded in all three of them. If the Demon Brothers were working with the Demon of the Mist then they definitely would not throw kunai at their fellow teammate. If the kunai thrown at them had not explained the fact that Zabuza was not working with the mist ninja brothers, then him saving both the blonds did. Looking in the direction that the kunai was thrown in, Arashi's eyes widened at what he saw.

Both Sasuke and Sakura were beaten and battered, but worse of all they were unconscious and were being held by their throats by the Demon Brothers. Standing in between the two that held his students, stood someone that Zabuza was enrage upon seeing. The man looked like he had the last time they had crossed paths. The same dark blue high collar cloak was wrapped around his being, hiding most of what he looked like from sight. Though the blue skin and gills, along with the blade that matched Zabuza's hanging off his back, was all Zabuza needed to see to know who it was.

"Hoshigaki Kisame," Zabuza growled out as he stood up, Naruto held protectively to his chest with one arm and the boy's feet dangling in air. "I should have known it was you, you've been trying to kill me since the Seven Swordsmen of Mist disbanded. Who else would be malevolent enough to work for a man like Gatou?"

The other swordsman just laughed a sinful laugh that caused the others to cringe. He just sounded so evil right there, that it did not even soul like the man had a soul left. Almost as if he had sold his soul to the devil himself for something in return. Maybe that is why the man looked like a shark. Whatever it was that caused the shark man to look and sound the way he did, it did not settle well with others at all.

"You think that I would actually work for a guy like that? Then you're sadly mistaken," Kisame said with an evilly evil grin on his face. "He thinks that he's using me, but the truth is I'm using him and once I'm through with him, I'll kill him. Just like how I'm about to kill you and these other pest."

"You haven't killed me yet and you've been saying that for years," Zabuza replied in a way that the others could just hear the grin on his face. Using his free hand, the Demon of the Mist drew his sword from where it was situated on his back from sheathing it earlier in his fight with Arashi. Looking straight at the other swordsman when he spoke, Zabuza asked Arashi for something he wished he did not need. Help. "I don't think I could defeat him on my own after fighting you and the Copycat, and everything else that has happened as well. How about we call it a truce? Deal?"

"Deal," Arashi said, grabbing one of his kunai and spinning it around his finger before grapping it in a firmly in his hand.

"Ya hear that Copycat? We're working together now!" the Demon said as he dissolved his mizu bunshin and the water prison holding Kakashi collapsed in on itself. Kakashi, surprised at the sudden release from his prison, did not have enough time to push chakra into his feet to walk on top of the water and plunged right in. Coming up and taking a gasp of air, Kakashi could hear the light laughter coming from Zabuza's direction. Glaring in his direction, the copycat shinobi pulled himself up from within the water onto the water's surface.

"I hear you, I hear you," the jounin grumbled.

"If you're finish chitchatting, let's get started!" Kisame growled as he drew his own sword and charged at his old partner. The man parried with easy, still holding Naruto safely inside of his arm. Pushing with all their might, the two men had to jump backwards knowing that they were at a stalemate. Once they were a few feet apart, Zabuza swung the boy in his arm around to his back and let the boy hang on his neck by his arms. Gripping the hilt of his sword with both hands, Zabuza prepared himself for the next attack, not daring setting the boy down knowing how Kisame worked. It there were any civilians or innocents around, the shark man used them to his advantage and took them as hostages or killed them right out. Either way, he would not allow the damned shark to do that to the blond boy.

Charging at Kisame, Zabuza made sure that he use no chakra, knowing that the shark's sword sucked any and all chakra away from his enemies. Trying to chop the shark in half, the man was greatly discouraged when the blue skinned man blocked it. Push his sword aside, the shark tried to cut him in half. Jumping up, the Demon dodged the attack and used to his own sword to push the other's blade down to the ground.

Landing on top of Kisame's sword, Zabuza grounded the blade right out of the shark's hand. Using his own blade, Zabuza pumped chakra into his blade, since Kisame did not have a hold of his blade anymore he knew it was safe to do so. Once he had a sufficient amount of chakra, the Demon swept his blade towards his former partner and watched as he dodged. Not giving him enough time to even think about it, Zabuza keep after him, attack at every given opportunity.

As Zabuza was taking care of Kisame, Arashi and Kakashi went after the two Demon Brothers. Arashi taking the Demon Brother that was holding Sakura, while Kakashi going after the other one, which had Sasuke in his grasps. The two chunnin did not even see it coming and have no chances against the angry Hokage and a pissed off jounin, who happened to be pissed off because he was been trapped in a water prison for way to long for his liking. The two decided that the best way to get ride of all that excess emotions that had built up inside of them and needed to be released was to beat the shit out of the Kiri shinobi. Something that was not too luckily for the mist shinobi.

The mist shinobi that was fighting against Kakashi aimed at high kick towards the silver haired man's head after he had received a punch in the side that caused him to drop Sasuke, which Kakashi easily dodged by ducking. Whilst ducking, the scarecrow swiped the man's feet underneath him with his leg and rolled out of the falling body's way. Rolling to his feet, the scarecrow got up and started to go through hand seals as fast as he could while his enemy was still done.

"Raiton: Lightning no Jutsu," Kakashi said as a lightning bolt was formed with his chakra and hit the man dead on killing him instantaneously. At the same time as the first brother died, Kakashi heard his sensei call out a killing blow that defeated the other brother.

"Katon: Housenka no Jutsu."

Turning just in time, Kakashi saw the last of the flames die down from Arashi's jutsu. The other brother's body was still on fire slightly and the smell that came with it made the copycat not want to eat anything for a week. Sure he had seen and dealt with death a lot, but the smell of burning flesh always got to him. It was just one of those things that cannot be helped in life.

Seeing now that they were both finished off with the Demon Brothers, both sensei ran over to their fallen students to make sure they were alright before checking up on Tazuna. Being closest to Sasuke, Kakashi was the one to check on the boy's health and he prayed to whatever god or goddess that was listening that nothing was seriously wrong with the boy. If there was something wrong with him Obito would surely castrate him and feed his testicles to his nin-dogs. How he knew this? It was very simple, the older Uchiha told him so.

Once he got to the younger Uchiha's side, the scarecrow had to roll him over since he was lying on his back. Checking if any of the vitals of his body were hit at all, Kakashi found relief to find nothing too badly was done. There were just a few scratches and cuts from fighting with sharp pointy objects called kunai and shurikens and a few bruises here and there. It was a blessed sight to see for the copycat knowing that nothing important to him would be removed from him in a very painful manor.

Hearing Sasuke groan, Kakashi looked up and watched as the boy's eyes fluttered, meaning he was on the verge of waking up. Suddenly the Uchiha's eyes flew open so fast that it started his sensei into falling backwards. Or at least that was what it would seem like at first, but in reality, that was not what happened. Even though the boy was still a bit drowsy and a little off, Sasuke could see something was up with his sensei.

"Arashi-sensei!" Kakashi yelled out not taking his eyes off of Sasuke's being, "you better get over here quickly!"

Sasuke dully noted the sound of footsteps could be heard coming his way and even further away the sounds of battle. Pushing himself up with one hand and grabbing his head with the other, the raven sat himself up, eyes closed in concentration to reduce the pain inside his throbbing head, while at the same time trying to remember what happened. Vaguely he recalled being blindsided by the mist shinobi he was fighting's fist and when the darkness started to take him over, he could hear three voices, two of them sounded like Tsuki and Tenpi strangely enough and the other a male's voice he had never heard before.

Though what had caused him to lose concentration during his fight? He had enough common sense not to do that during any fight, so what had distracted him enough to actually lose focus of what he was doing? The last thing coming to mind other that being blindsided by the mist shinobi was him telling Naruto to stay put and protect Tazuna while he and Sakura battled the two brothers, he did not want a repeat of last time. Then he had gone off to fight one of the mist shinobi and…

Sasuke's eyes suddenly snapped open remembering now. He ignored the gasps of surprise coming from his blond sensei and looked around frantically. For the last thing that happened before he was blindsided was that he saw Naruto run into the middle of the fight with Zabuza and Arashi and jump onto the Demon's back only to be flung in to the lake. He did not get to see if the blond landed safely or not because he heard something coming towards his head and turned only to be hit.

"Holy shit!" Sasuke heard the Hokage say, which distracted him from looking for Naruto and look straight at the blond man, wondering what was up with him. "Kakashi please tell me that's not what I think it is."

"If I told you that that wasn't the Mangekyou Sharingan then I'd be lying," Kakashi said, still in awe that the boy had somehow not only awaken his sharingan but the Mangekyou Sharingan without killing anyone. It was the last thing Sasuke heard before blacking out once again, this time form chakra exhaustion.

* * *

Slipping off of Zabuza's back, Naruto landed on the surface of the water whilst the two Swordsmen of Mist fought each other without either of them noticing him. Walking over towards dry land, Naruto made his way to Kisame's sword that he hadn't had time to retrieve as he fought with Zabuza. Looking over the blade with the careful eye, the blond boy found what he was looking for. It was not that notice able and the shark man probably did not even realize that it was there, but since Naruto's hobby was metal crafts, he knew what to look for. What he found was a flaw in the sword.

Biting his finger, the Heir of Foxes made a seal with his own blood, since he did not care ink with him, on top of the flaw with precision that only came with time and practice. Once the seal was complete, Naruto grinned one of his foxy grins and activated the seal with a simple hand seal. He watched in satisfaction as the blood glowed and was absorbed with in the blade to make it look like no seal had ever been place upon it.

Which was just in time to, because once the seal had disappeared without a trace he saw Kisame appear in front of him and was about to strike him. Probably very hard if Zabuza had not picked him up from behind and got out of the way. The next thing Naruto knew, he was swung over onto Zabuza's back again and Kisame had his sword in his hands once more. Underneath him, the boy could feel the brunette that was carrying him slick with sweat and the heavy panting from the battle. He would have been concerned for the swordsman if the shark did not look as bad off as Zabuza, but since he did, Naruto knew that he was giving back what he received. Meaning that they were both evenly matched.

"Now you've done it," Kisame laughed evilly, "you and I are evenly matched when I'm without my sword, but since you made the mistake of letting me get it back, you're doomed. And even if you succeed, which there is a very small margin of you actually doing so, they'll be many more to take my place. That's just how Gatou works."

"We'll see about that," Zabuza said, as he felt the boy on his back tighten his hold on him and smirked. Pumping chakra into his blade, Zabuza got ready to perform his finally attack, one that he had not used in a very, _very_, long time. One that he did not know the significance of until just recently. Apparently it was a family technique, only he modified a little bit. Slowly, his giant sword began to glow, at first not noticeable, but it slowly started to shine brighter and brighter and Kisame let it happen, knowing his sword would absorb Zabuza's chakra. Once he had a sufficient about of chakra, which had his sword glowing brightly, the swordsman charged at the shark. "_Hakko Chakura_."

The white light incased sword came at Kisame and all the shark did was try to parry, thinking that his sword would absorb the other's chakra. But his sword did not absorb the white chakra and instead it was shattered when the white chakra touched it. The chakra laced sword did not stop there, but keep going straight flesh and bone and only stop when it was all the way through to the other side. The last look on Kisame's face was of pure shock and bewilderment.

Letting the white chakra fade away, Zabuza watched as Kisame's body sank into the water, his blood slowly turning the liquid red. Letting the boy on his back slid off, the swordsman put his sword back on his back and walked over towards the Konoha shinobi with Naruto right behind him. Once they had almost reached them, Kyuubi, who had been guarding Tazuna all during the fight, ran up to them and yipped happily around Zabuza's feet before heading over to the Heir of Foxes to make sure he was alright.

However, before they could even reach shore, Kakashi hand Zabuza held by the throat, glaring at him. "Where the _hell _did you get that technique?"

"Kakashi-sensei, stop it!" Naruto cried surprise and scared when he saw what his sensei was doing to the swordsman. "He helped us! Don't kill him!"

"Where did you learn that technique?!" the scarecrow growled out again, ignoring his student's plea.

"Kakashi…Hatake Kakashi…son of Hatake Sakumo…" Zabuza said slowly as if piecing things together in his mind before laughing out loud, but it only made the silver haired man glare more and tighten his hold.

"What of it?!" Kakashi all but roared.

"What's wrong, _little brother_?" the swordsman asked with a smirk. Hearing the little brother comment made Kakashi start so much that he let go of Zabuza and stumble backwards.

"Wha-?!"

"You don't remember, but I can't really say I do either, after all, I was only a month old at the time when you were born. We were supposed to be twin, but our mother went in labor early and had me prematurely. A med-nin somehow stopped you from being born prematurely so you wouldn't die, seeing how it didn't look like I was going to make it, but I did by some stroke of luck. After you were born our parents decided to split up, since our father was widely known and we could've of been used bait against him. But our father didn't want to give us all up so you went with him to Konoha and I went with our mother back to her home village in Kiri," Zabuza explained to the already confused and baffled scarecrow. "However something went horribly wrong and I was left orphaned, our father probably thought that not only did our mother die but I died as well. He probably never told you about us so you would not morn the family you never knew.

"I didn't even know I had blood family until a few years ago when I finally had enough courage to open up the scroll our mother left me. That's how I found out Hatake Sakumo was my father. I began to search for him but found out he was dead and I figured you were dead as well. It was also from inside another scroll that our mother left me where I found and learned to use the Hakko Chakura To, or my version of it, the Hakko Chakura."

"So Kakashi-sensei is your brother?" Naruto asked the Demon in awe from this old turn about of things.

"Yes, or so it does seem, brat," Zabuza told the boy.

"I think I've had enough surprises today," Arashi said at the same time, looking over at Sasuke who was unconscious from chakra depletion after somehow beyond him obtaining the Mangekyou Sharingan. Then he looked towards the new reunited brothers. Sadly, the Yondaime would not get his wish that day.

"Does that make Kakashi-sensei my family as well, Zabuza-ojisan?"

* * *

Okay, so that last part was the strange thing I talked about in the beginning. I never meant to have Zabuza and Kakashi be brothers, but after I saw that their birthdays were only a month apart, it kind of made its way into this story. Now I have to rethink all my plans for later chapters. Though, I hope you are all happy, I was going to make Naruto mute (it was very tempting to do so) but I decided since so many of you review and asked me not to, I didn't. See I listen to my reviewers! 

Also, it seems that I have abandoned the idea of getting a beta. So for all of you that like prefectly written stories, this will never be one. BUT I will still try my best to make sure my grammer and conventions are correct!

And thanks to all who have review, they really help me on with this story. And I thank you **cheza'flower'silver'wolf** for getting over your shyness to review my story.

Shi no Tenshi 902


	13. Back in Wave Country

Okay, so our trip got delayed for a week and in that week I made the next chapter, but now everyone must know that I definately won't be updating for a **_LONG_** time. So please don't ask me to update and then be made at me since I haven't, because I can't! And I am posting this a night before I leave as my sorry gift to all of you.

I have to tell everyone though that all the god and goddesses are real, they are just my own version of them though. Just like the rest of the Naruto gang. However, all of the Tenshi, save for Shina -who is actually supposed to be the Japanese Wind Goddess with a shorten named- are just made up.

Also, I would like to mention that this, as of my last chapter, is my longest story yet and I have yet to even get to the Chunnin Exams! Yea me!

* * *

Arashi rubbed his temples in hopes of getting rid of the headache that seemed to stay with him forever or at least from the battle earlier. 

"Here, you look like you need this," a soft female voice said, that caused Arashi to look up and see Tazuna's daughter, Tsunami, holding out a cup of steaming tea to him. Smiling warmly at the woman, the Yondaime took the cup.

"Thank you very much Tsunami-san, you're too kind," the man said as he took a sip of the tea and savored the taste.

"It's the least I could do; after all you're helping my father even when he lied to you. Which I greatly disapprove of, but it was for the better of this Country, so I know where he's coming from," the bridge builder's daughter said with a sigh. "So how is the rest of you're team?"

This time it was Arashi let out a sigh of his own. The very subject was the reason why he had such a headache. When the battle was finally over, Kakashi, who had used his sharingan for way to long, fainted from chakra exhaustion and that reminded the others that both Sasuke and Sakura were still unconscious and they needed to get out of there. Zabuza just simply shrugged his shoulders and picked up Kakashi and threw him over his shoulders as if he were a bag of potatoes. The man then picked up Sakura and threw her over the other shoulder before turning to Arashi. Getting his point, the Yondaime picked up the Uchiha, but did not throw him over like the Demon did and just simply carried the boy.

The half conscious group then let Tazuna lead him to his house. There, Tsunami greeted them and quickly began to help them with the three unconscious shinobi. She first looked over Kakashi seeing that he was the one worst injured and needed the most help at the moment. After checking him over and fixing up his cuts and bruises, the woman recommended the scarecrow to rest for two to three days before moving on to the next injured and unconscious shinobi. After cleaning the dirt off the girl and finding that she was not injured at all, Tsunami let Sakura rested, since that was all the cherry blossom needed.

Moving on to the next, and last, unconscious shinobi, Tsunami found out that the boy had a rather nasty bump on his head and a lot of cuts. Cleaning all of the dirt and blood off the boy, it was easier for her to work on him while preventing him from getting any infections. However, there was not much she could do for him, but she just did all she could and left the boy to rest. Tsunami then started to work on the conscious shinobi, but half way through patching up Naruto, he and Kyuubi fell asleep. So while Zabuza took the boy and his fox up into the room he was to share with Sasuke and put the blond to bed, it gave the bridge builder's daughter time to patch up the Hokage and when Zabuza came back down, she fixed him up as well. When Tsunami was finished with him, Zabuza left saying he would be back in the morning.

This left Arashi sitting at Tazuna's kitchen table whilst his daughter severed him some tea. A lot, if not all, of his question were left unanswered and him confused more than ever. Arashi sat there trying to figure everything out for himself, but he was not getting anywhere anytime soon. Vaguely he heard Tsunami telling him she was going to bed and to actually sleep that night or something along those lines. Though he was too caught up in his own thoughts to actually hear what the woman was saying.

Being caught up in his thought, Arashi did not hear the creaking of the door to the outside open up. Yet he did hear the echoing sound of footsteps as they came through the house and to be more specific towards him. Arashi instantly tensed up upon hearing the sound and was about to grab a shuriken from his holster, but the faint chakra signature keep him from doing so. It also caused him to relax all that he could during the middle of a mission.

"I thought you said you weren't going to be back until morning," Arashi mumbled as he took a sip of his tea. A grimace quickly crossed his face when he found that his tea was icy cold and did not taste good at all.

"You haven't slept yet, have you?" Zabuza said sitting down across the table from the Hokage, at the same time flinging a bunch of newly caught fish onto the table.

"Now what makes you think that?" the man said, glaring down at his cold tea wondering how long he had been sitting there exactly. He knew that when the tea was given to him it had been warm to the touch, but now it was anything but warm.

"Because, it's an hour or so till dawn and you're in the exact same place as you were when I left," the Demon explained to Arashi and motioned to the window. Looking towards the window, Arashi saw that indeed it was an hour or so till dawn, the lighter color to the sky being one of the signs. Mumbling a weak acknowledgement that he was right, Zabuza looked at the Hokage of Konoha and saw that he looked totally out of it. "Want do you want to know?"

"Huh?" the blond man said, confused what the other man was trying to say.

Zabuza almost had the urge to roll his eyes at the other man, but he did not. "You're obviously trying to comprehend what's all been thrown on you in the day while fill in the missing pieces at the same time. Seeing that I can't help you with the Uchiha brat, I can, however, help you with the questions involving me and some things involving my nephew. After all, I can't be going to give all of his secrets away, not without his consent that is."

Arashi just started at Zabuza, not believing what he was hearing. He had been thinking about a way to convince, or even trick, either Zabuza or Naruto into telling him what he wanted to know. Nevertheless, since he was not to keen on the idea of tricking Naruto -he felt horrible for even thinking about it- he had decided to try and trick the boy's uncle. The problem with that was Zabuza would immediately realize what he was trying to do. So he had been contemplating how to go about it without having Zabuza catch on and here Zabuza was offering a chance to ask him any question he wanted? This was not a chance he was willing to give up.

Snapping out of it, Arashi asked the first question that came to mind. "How are you related to Naruto exactly?"

"Truthfully, by blood, I'm not," Zabuza said nonchalantly, which totally caught the Yellow Flash of Konoha off guard. His face looked surprised and bewildered at the same time, which had the Demon smirking, even though it could not be seen underneath the bandages wrapped around his mouth. "Yet there is never any need to have the same blood to be family, if you accept them into your heart, they are your family no matter what. Uzumaki Hoshi was the one to show me that when I was homeless and alone with the world against me. She was the one to take me in and adopted me. She helped me on my way even when she knew I had killed many. She helped my gain back something I thought I lost a long time ago; she helped me gain back my humanity.

"So when Hoshi-kaasan came to me years later with a boy not knowing who he was. I did what Hoshi-kaasan did for me; I help him find his true self. But at the same time, he helped me with something I didn't know I had lost myself. While Hoshi-kaasan restored my humanity, Naruto showed me it was alright to love again. Something I never realized, while having my humanity back, I was subconsciously distanced myself away from everyone not letting anyone into my heart, but Naruto showed me. He showed me why and how to love again. He's special that way."

"How do you mean he's special?" Arashi asked, clinging on to every word that was being said.

"Now that's something you'll have to find out for yourself," the former mist shinobi said cryptically.

"How is Naruto able to walk on water? After all, I mean, it is a chunnin level chakra control technique," the blond asked another question that he wanted to know.

"You really don't think I wouldn't have anything to do with my nephew's training do you?" Zabuza asked, not believing that he was being asked that. When he saw the understanding look cross the other's face, the Demon knew that he understood.

"No, I guess I get you point there. It's just that while I have been Naruto's teacher I have notice that he lacks in ninjutsu and genjutsu and I always thought that it was because he lacked in chakra control. Yet today he demonstrated that he had great chakra control but that doesn't explain why he can't do ninjutsu and genjutsu," Arashi explained his next unasked question.

"Let's just say, Naruto can't do simple techniques at all, he fails miserable at them. However, give him things that are above his level and any normal kid his age couldn't accomplish, he soaks it in like a sponge would water," the man replied using a common analogy to better explain what he meant. "Anything else you want to ask me?"

Now that was something Arashi did not know. Zabuza had unknowingly, or he even may have done it knowingly, answered all of his questions without really having to ask. Though he did have questions about Naruto and Kyuubi, it was obvious that the man would not answer them. Or he would not answer them thoroughly and answer them with only half the truth. So there was not anything he could ask that would be answered how he wanted them answered. Though there was something that he just has to ask. Something that he was sure would actually be answered.

"Why does Naruto always wear orange?"

Yawning, Naruto slowly made his way down the stairs sluggishly. Following right behind him, Kyuubi also let lose one of his own fox yawn. Both had just woken up and both were still feeling the effects of sleep, in other words both of them were a bit drowsy. However, this did not seem to matter to them, since as soon as they heard the faint sounds of laughter, both of them were more awake then they were before. After all, it is not everyday that they heard Zabuza laughing so hard.

"What's so funny Zabuza-ojisan?" Naruto asked, rubbing his eyes, as he came into view of the two sitting at the table.

"You and you're favorite color," Zabuza chuckled, calming down a bit, but a smirk could still be heard on the Demon's face. "Why are you still wearing that outfit anyways? I thought you'd out grow it once you became a ninja."

At the mention of his attire, the sleepiness in the boy seemed to disappear only to be replaced by a sad depressing look. "It was the last present Grandma gave to me."

There was a long pause of silence and not one of those comfortable silences either. It was a very uncomfortable one at that. The only sounds were the sounds of the occupants of the room shifting. All the while Naruto keep his head down, not looking at anyone and anything for long periods of time. Finally, Naruto mumbled something along the lines of going outside for a while and he left the house with Kyuubi on his heals. Once they were gone, Zabuza let out a sign and put his head in his hands.

"I thought he'd get over it by now," Zabuza murmured.

"Get over what?" Arashi asked confusedly.

"The fact that he blames himself for the murder of Uzumaki Hoshi."

* * *

"Okay, since Kakashi is still in bed unconscious, we'll be training out here while he sleeps," Arashi explained to his two students that were present at the time. His third student was currently with his uncle, doing what, he did not know. All he did know was that he was with his uncle and he was probably still sad about this morning's events. Something that was still fresh in the young Yondaime Hokage's mind. 

Every word that was said, he could remember as if it were just said to him not even a second ago. He could not believe that Naruto had already been through so much as a child. He had already suffered so much when he was so young. It was a miracle that he was so pure and innocent after all that had happened to him in the past. To think that the boy even managed to live through it all was just as much as a miracle as him being the way he is and to think Zabuza was most definitely holding out on a lot more information was not reassuring either.

"But Arashi-sensei, what about Naruto and Kyuubi, shouldn't they be here to receive the training as well?" Sakura asked trying to hide the fact she was being a busybody and wanted to know where her other teammate was and it was not because of the fact she was worried about him either. In all actuality, she wanted to know what had gone one in the fight after she had been knocked out and, for some reason, her sensei would not tell her and Sasuke. He had said that Naruto would be the one that had to tell the story, since it was his story to tell. Which totally confused the other two, but they did not mention it out loud.

"They have…other business to attend to," Arashi said uncomfortable, not sure what to really say and it showed as he shifted awkwardly. However, his next sentence was a total change in emotion. He sounded so cheerful and excited for some reason. "So until he gets back to train with us, we're going to be working on our stamina and chakra control at the same time. We will be doing this by climbing trees."

"How is that considered training?" the cherry blossom asked, a little annoyed at the cheerfulness in her sensei's voice. Sasuke even seemed to be a little uneasy himself, though he would not show it like Sakura. Instead he just grunted and looked on indifferently.

"Because we're not going to be climbing trees the ordinary way. You see you're not allowed to use your hands," the blond man said with great enthusiasm.

At this Sasuke snorted and actually looked Arashi straight in the eyes for the first time that morning. "And how are we supposed to do that if we're not allowed to use our hands?"

The fox's grin that appeared on the Hokage's face did not seem to sit well with his students. "Watch and learn."

With that said, Arashi made a quick hand seal and started casually to walk up toward a near by tree. However, when he was right by it, he did not seem to stop like they expected him to. He simply just put his foot on the base of the tree before taking another step forward. Much to the amazement of his students, he did not succumb to the force of gravity. No, instead he jut walked up the tree using just his feet. Once he reached a tree branch, he walked onto that so that he was standing upside down, parallel to the ground.

"And that's all it is, in a nutshell," Arashi said almost in a bored tone, but the look on his face said something totally different, since he was looking down at his students with his foxy grin still on his face. "All you have to do is focus all of your chakra into the soles of your feet and use that power to cling to the trunk of the tree. When you have fully mastered your chakra, you'll be able to accomplish this kind of thing."

"But Arashi-sensei, how will learning tree climbing help us get stronger?" was Sakura's sudden outburst. Her hopes were up, seeing as if this truly could make her stronger, than she could finally get Sasuke-kun's attention. It was the perfect thing, since she noticed how all her crush cared about was how strong a person was or at least it would seem to her. The cherry blossom was too ignorant to notice that her own crush was slowly taking an interest in their blond haired teammate.

"I'm just getting to that," the Hokage said, a little annoyed at being interrupted. "Listen and learn. The point of it all, the goal is the greater mastery over your chakra. To use no more than is necessary, but to maximize its effectiveness is where and how it applied. That subtle control is the most critical aspect of ever jutsu and techniques you'll ever apply. It's almost the most difficult skill for even a jounin shinobi to master.

"The type of tree climbing we are doing here requires the most fine and delicate applications of chakra control, especially because the bottom of the foot is an area where it's most difficult to manipulate one's chakra. In other words, if you can master the chakra control needed for this skill than no jutsu should ever be beyond you. In theory anyways. The secondary objective is to build up enough stamina necessary to complete your task once the chakra has been focused. If you think this looks hard, it's even more difficult to your chakra when using ninjutsu.

"In battle, circumstances are constantly changing, and being a true shinobi has to manipulate and maintain his chakra control on the fly, if they ever hope to prevail. The time you need to just stand around trying to summon and control your own powers won't be a luxury you be able to have. So while you're climbing those trees, you'll also be mastering the skills that will probably save your lives. Now no more talk, it's time for some action. The only way to learn this is by doing."

With that said, two plain kunai were thrown and landed at the feet of the two younger shinobi, before Arashi gave them each some last minute instructions and advice. "Your goal is to make a mark on a higher spot one the tree each time you climb. I don't expect either of you to reach the top on your first try. A running start will give you enough momentum for a good first effort. All right?"

With a nod of their heads, both Sakura and Sasuke took the same stance their sensei had and made the same hand seal as to channel their chakra like Arashi had. Once they felt as if they had channeled their chakra the same way their sensei had, both took off in a running start at different trees. As Sasuke took the first step up the tree he was practicing on, a jolt of fear ran through him hoping he would not fail. When he successes on the making the first two step ups the tree, his felling of fear went away to be replaced by a feeling of accomplishment, but it did not last long. A few more steps up the tree and he fell down, but not before marking where he had reached.

Doing a back flip before he landed on the ground perfectly, Sasuke looked up to see how far he had actually gone. He was sadly disappointed to see that he had only made it one eighth of the way up the tree. Seeing that he did not make it very high up the tree, the Uchiha curse lightly under his breath at his skills, or lack of. He saw that for the first few steps he hand taken there was no marks that he was ever there, but the last step he could clearly see an indentation of his foot splintered into the wood.

'Maintaining focus is a lot harder than I expected. Too much force and the surface's own energy repels you,' Sasuke observed carefully, but did not voice it out loud. 'Too little and you'll never adhere to in the first place.'

Sasuke was thrown out of his thoughts by a voice calling out from above him. "This is easier than I thought!"

Looking up, Sasuke saw that it was not Arashi that had said anything but followed the Yondaime's gaze to see that he was looking at was Sakura sitting on a tree branch parallel to the one he still stood upside down on. The pink haired girl's kunai was stabbed into the tree right next to her head. It was actually shocking to see that the girl had got it on her first try, but from what Rin had told him, the girl could pick up thinks fast, but she did not have a lot of chakra to begin with anyways. This was why Sasuke was having so many problems, since he had a vast amount of untapped chakra resources.

"Well, now we know which of you two has the best chakra control. Our young lady," Arashi complemented the girl, who just smiled at the blond. However, when Sakura saw Sasuke's face, her happiness soon left her only to be replaced by despair at making the boy look they way he did. The last Uchiha looked angry that he had been upstaged by the girl and a little disappointed as well, but the others did not seem to see that. "Now that you've seen the first part of your train, I'll get on to the next stage."

"What do you mean sensei?" Sakura asked, grabbing her kunai and jumping down from the tree to stand next to Sasuke. Both of them were looking up at their sensei who was grinning like a madman. Instead of answering Sakura though, Arashi threw what looked to be like four rolls of regular looking bandages, but each roll had seals laced all throughout them. "What are these for Arashi-sensei?"

However, when the girl tried to pick up the bandages, she found she had to use all of her strength to lift just two of the four bandages and could not lift anymore. She looked at the bandages in confusion, not understanding why the rolls were so heavy. The bandages weighed around twenty to thirty pounds easily and that was just one. Setting the two bandages down, which only then did she notice that the two she picked up wear both pink. Blinking twice, Sakura tried to pick up the other two which were both black in color. Tried being the key word, seeing as the black rolls were twice as heavy as the pink ones and she could not lift them at all.

"Those, Sakura, are a special set of weights, which I made using regular bandages and vary of different types of seals," the blond man explained. "The pink set is for you Sakura, while the black set is for Sasuke. You are to wear one of them wrapped around each of your legs until I say otherwise and for the rest of the day you are to run up and down these trees, marking your progress, until you can't run anymore, got it?"

"Yes sensei," Sakura said as she picked up the pink bandage rolls and began wrapping them around her ankles.

"No."

"What was that?" Arashi asked looking towards Sasuke and noticed the smirk on his face.

"I won't wear them," Sasuke said defiantly, "I've already got my own." Making a hand seal, the bandages around his legs glowed a little bit before showing a complex set of seals that looked just like the ones that wear on the bandages that Sakura had just wrapped around her legs. Seeing the seals on the bandages, Arashi jumped down from the tree and did a flip before landing on perfectly on his feet. Walking over to the boy, the Hokage kneeled down and took a look at the bandages and surprisingly enough, he found out that the seals were his own work.

"So that's what Obito wanted those bandages for last week," the blond haired man said. Then a thought hit him, "that's why you were so tired after running that short distance during the battle the other day, you still hadn't adjusted to the new weight yet, had you?"

At the nod of Sasuke's head, Arashi's suspicion was confirmed. "Alright then, since you both are now wearing weights, it's time to get back to your training."

Nodding their heads, the two genin got back to work and once again began to climb the trees with only chakra. Arashi watched them with a slight smile on his face as they strived to climb the tree and get to the top. Reclaiming the tree he had been on, Arashi made himself comfortable on the branch he had been standing upside down on, only this time he was right side up, and tried to relax so he could take a nap. Though before he could get completely relaxed, he heard the cracking of a twig, turning his head in a relaxed manor, Arashi saw that a little boy was standing behind one of the trees watching his students train.

However, Arashi was not worried, because he recognized the boy. If he remembered correctly, Tsunami had briefly introduced him as her son, Inari, last night in between helping his fellow ninjas. He really did not have the time last night to pay attention to him last night, much less talk to him, so he was fairly curious why the boy was spying on them now. It was strange to see the boy standing there watching them, since he did not really seem interested in what they were doing, judging by the frown on his face. Though when the boy turned around and walked away sluggishly, Arashi just shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly and took his well disserved nap.

* * *

"Why do they even try?" Inari murmured to himself as he made his way back home, "they're all just going to die anyways. No one can beat Gatou and his men." 

While he talked to himself, Inari did not notice that tears had started to descend down his cheeks nor did he notice where he was exactly going, being caught up in his own misery and all. So when the turn off came, the little boy did not realize that he took the right pathway instead of the left pathway, leading him towards someplace he would rather not be. Nevertheless, since he had not realized he made a mistake and taken the wrong pathway yet, he did not care. All Inari wanted to do was go home and wallow in self-pity on his bed clutching the picture frame that he held as his highest possession.

"Why do they wear themselves out trying?" Inari continued to talk to himself, still not realizing he was on the wrong path. "No, matter how hard they train; they'll never be a match for Gatou's thugs."

"They try and they train, because, unlike you, they'll never give up. They know that failure for them means death, but every shinobi knows and they choice to continue on the road that they walk, even if it means death. And you want to know why they do this? It's simple, because people like you that have lost hope need someone to pull them out of the dark and back into the light. A hero so to speak."

Hear the calm and collected voice, Inari finally took some notice of his surroundings and saw the blond haired boy was sitting in front of…something, in a prayer like position. At the time he could not tell what the boy was sitting in front of seeing that his back was to him and his body was shielding the object from view. Sitting next to him obediently, with his head bowed down, Kyuubi sat just as calmly as they usually hyper boy. Though, when Inari first saw the blond boy, he did not realize that it was the same boy from the night before, even his voice did not give it away. The blond boy seemed like a totally different person.

His voice did not have that happy and hyper tone to it, it was soft and calm. Nothing like Inari's first impression of the boy. Even his clothes did not look as bright as they once did, but it could also be because the blond was not wearing his bright orange jacket like he usually did. Instead, it was folded neatly into a little pile right next to him with a lot of care, if how precise the folds of the jackets were any indications of anything. The dark black shirt that he now wore seemed to bring out the golden color of his hair and made him seem more divine than anything he had ever seen in his life.

Even though the sight before him seemed to be a perfect picture, Inari had to break it with his next words of hatred. "'Hero?' You're an idiot! There are no such things as heroes!"

"Maybe I am an idiot," Naruto chuckling, never turning around or moving from his prayer position. Actually he was mumbling some sort of prayer or something along that sort. After he finished his little prayer, Naruto slowly stood up and faced the bridge builder's grandson, Kyuubi following his actions. The second he was facing the boy, the genin's eyes locked with the boy's and Inari almost had to gasp at the sight. For his eyes were full wisdom that even his grandfather's eyes did not show. "But at least I'm not a quitter like you."

Insulted by his words, Inari yelled out aggressively at the fox like boy. "You go running your mouth off when you don't know a thing! This isn't your town and you don't know a think about it or me! You don't know a thing about suffering or loneliness or what my life is like! So stop acting like you do!"

"And it seems you think that you've got me all figured out, do you? Look around you and tell me what you see," Naruto said on the verge of anger, yet he kept it in check, motioning to the area around him and for the first time, Inari truly took a look at his surroundings. Fear ran through his body as he took in the area he was in, it was what the local village children called the 'Forgotten Graveyard,' because there was one grave in the clearing that no one ever visited. Also, the only other thing in the clearing, there was an old house overran by vines and other foliage. The really scary part about the Forgotten Graveyard was it was said to be haunted by a revengefully spirit that was murdered in the most horrible way possible. "_This_, this is _my _life.

"So this wasn't the village I was born in, so this wasn't I was raised in; so this isn't my village _now_. But it _was_," Naruto growled out. "If you think I don't know what it's like to feel suffering and loneliness, then you're wrong. My grandmother was taken from me, _murdered_, all _because _of _me_. And you don't think that's suffering enough? Try living with the guilt that comes with it. I've learned crying doesn't do anything and neither does quitting. If you want something done, you have to work for it."

Looking Naruto in the eyes, Inari saw emotions flicker through them with each passing word and knew that the boy in front of him was not lying. He knew for a fact, because the emotions on his face were the exact same emotions he saw on his own face when he looked in to a mirror. The only difference between his face and the blond's was that Naruto's emotions were more intense and had more emotions behind them than his did. More tears started to stream down the little boy's face and sniffling soon came after. Lowering his face so that he did not show his tear, the sniffling soon turned to sobs.

Hearing foot steps coming towards him, Inari did the only thing he could do, he cried harder. Though what ever he thought was going to come did not happen. Instead he heard what he thought as someone, which could only be Naruto, sitting down next to him. Hearing Naruto sigh, but not say anything else, Inari looked up. What he saw was Naruto facing the old run down house with a loving, but longing, look on his face.

"Listen, I didn't mean to make you cry or anything, but you shouldn't jump to conclusions," the fox boy said calmly. "I just wanted to show you that you weren't the only one to have had a hard life. I know what's it's like to grow up without a father, and even a mother, just like you."

"Wha?" Inari asked confusedly, looking over at Naruto, who in turned looked back at him with a little smile on his face that gave the boy a warm feeling.

"You really don't think that I don't know your story as well before making accusations, do you?" Naruto asked rhetorically. "Though know this, that father, Kaiza, of yours was a true hero. What Gatou did to your father was truly unforgivable, but sulking won't bring him back. It's okay to morn one's death, you just have to get on with your life too and not let the past hold you down, but hold you up." However, he was not finished there and turned his head, looking forlornly at the gravestone. "But I'm just being a hypocrite, because I've been doing the same thing."

They stood there in silence for a little bit, neither one of them knowing quite what to say next. Instead they just let the silence speak for them and it seemed to speak words only they could hear, for soon a smile spread across Naruto's face that seemed to spread to Inari's. Walking back over to the gravestone, the blond boy picked up his orange jacket and shrugged it on. Picking Kyuubi up and putting him in his inside jacket pocket, Naruto started walking away.

After a few step, Naruto stopped and turned towards Inari with a slight smile on his face. "You coming with or not?"

Even though there was double meaning behind the question, Inari got both of them. Understanding that if he went with the genin and his fox, he would be moving forward with his life and would not be stuck living in the past. Though he would not be doing it a lone, Naruto would be there moving forward with him, helping him. The second meaning was the more common one being that did the boy want to come with him to where ever he was headed off to.

Smiling his first smile since his father died, Inari nodded his head and ran to catch up with Naruto. "So where are we going?"

"Fishing."

* * *

The day was well past afternoon and well on its way to being evening when their sensei finally demeaned it fit to head back to the bridge builder's house. However, before they could go to the house, Arashi also demeaned it fit to make a few stops. While he told them this, the trio had been walking towards their first stop. So when his cherry blossom head student asked what he needed to stop for. She was scared out of her when her sensei answered her from behind her. 

Now there was nothing scary about the fact that he answered her from behind her, except for the small fact that he was standing in _front _of her. Whirling around, both of his students saw that there sensei was standing behind them with their client right beside him. Looking back and forth between the two sensei that were smiling cheekily at them, the genin were confused. Suddenly, the blond sensei that had been training them all day disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Well Tsunami asked if we would pick up some things for dinner for her and I agreed," Arashi said nonchalantly.

"How-? What-? When-?" Sakura stuttered out, trying to find the right words to ask the question, but she could not seem to find the right words to use. Giving a big sigh, the female genin of team seven gave up. "Never mind."

"Well since there aren't anymore questions, let's head on out!" the blond haired man happily said. The only sign of acknowledgement from his students was the grunt from the Uchiha and soft mumbling coming from the Haruno. Shrugging his shoulders, Arashi gestured for Tazuna to lead the way and started a conversation with the man as they began to walk towards the center of the village. The two twelve year olds just followed behind them, Sakura throwing herself over Sasuke all the way there. However, once they got in sight of the town, the group fell silent as they looked around.

The village was in shambles. The buildings were ruins, there were holes and cracks were running up and down the walls of the entire buildings. Hell, some building even had whole walls missing and only sheets covering the missing parts of the wall. Some homes were only sheets thrown up as tents and entire families living within just one small tent. People were walking the street with signs looking for any type of work and more than not people looked as if they were homeless and starved.

'What's wrong with this town?' Sasuke asked as his eyes darted around him taking all he saw into account. Just seeing what had become of the once prosperous island made him cringe. This Gatou was a ruthless malicious being. He did not even deserved to be called human in the Uchiha's mind, he was too immoral. Feeling something tug at the back of his shirt, Sasuke turned around slowly to see a little ragged looking girl holding out cupped hand towards him.

Feeling sympathy for the little girl, the Uchiha grabbed some of the candy, which some of his fangirls gave to him before he left and still had on his person for some strange reason, and handed it to the girl. Seeing the smile he received for the small gesture of kindness made it all worth the while to him. Besides, he hated sweets and if his fangirls really knew him like they said they did then they would have known not given him the sweets to begin with.

Hearing Sakura scream, Sasuke turned just in time to see the girl dropkicking a guy. "PEVERT!"

"Well…that was certainly a surprise," Tazuna said as both he and Arashi watched the guy go flying after being kicked. The girl had the decency to blush and look shyly over at Sasuke wondering if he was watching her at all. Her hopes were shattered when she saw that the boy was looking elsewhere and not paying attention to her at all. Feeling disappointed, Sakura looked down well wondering why her raven haired teammate never looked at her with any interest at all. The girl was snapped out of her thoughts when she realized that the group had walked inside of one of the rundown buildings.

"We're here," the bridge builder stated. The scary thing about the grocery store they were in was the simple fact that there was hardly anything there. There was hardly enough food in the whole store to make a descent mean for a whole family let alone the whole village. There was not even any meat in the store, just fruits and vegetables that did not look like they had time to fully develop. It was not something that the Konoha shinobi were used to and it showed on their faces, which Tazuna took it upon himself to explain it to the others. "It's been like this ever since Gatou moved in.

"Since then we've become a city of slackers, cowards, and fools. That's why the bridge I'm building is so essential! It will be an emblem of courage. Maybe the people who've taken the path of least resistance will be willing to walk the road of courage and dignity again. I truly believe that our city and our people can be what they once were again. If only we can complete it…"

The Konoha group was not sure if Tazuna's cut off was intentional or if it was because of the raucous outside, but either way the man had trailed out. One way or another, it left a lasting impression on each of the people in the small store. Well at least it did, until the noise outside got even louder. Looking towards the open door, the group saw a couple people run by in a hurry to go some place. Wondering what was going on, Arashi stuck his head out the door and saw that a group of people were gathered around an area. Yet he could not quite make out what was going on.

Trying to focus on what was the center of everyone's attention, Arashi started to walk towards the crowd, leaving his students with Tazuna. The noise increased the closer Arashi got to the crowd, yet he still could not understand what they were shouting and yelling about. Though no matter how close he got to the crowd he could not see through the crowd to what was the center of their focus. He was just about to push through the crowd; the calling of his pink haired student stopped him.

"Arashi-sensei, Tazuna-san is finished with his shopping and he says there's nothing else he needed to do. We're heading back now," Sakura yelled.

"Alright Sakura, I'll be right there," Arashi said cheerfully before giving the crowd one last meaningful look and following the retreating backs of his students and their clients.

The walk back to Tazuna's house was made like usual. Meaning that Sakura was throwing herself at the Uchiha's feet and the raven was ignoring her with all his being. Even the bridge builder's drinking had become a normal sight to Arashi. Though it seemed a little quiet since the other half of Team Seven was missing. He missed Kakashi walking a head of him reading that god forsaken book of his and Obito standing besides him, yelling at him. He also missed the intelligent conversations he held with Rin while trying to drown out Obito's ranting. But most of all, the blond haired man missed his mini replica and his fox goofing around.

Though it cheered him up some to think that both his mini replica and his silvered hair student were at Tazuna's house and they were both probably waiting for them to arrive. Then he would not be as sad as he was anymore. It also meant that Sakura and Sasuke would get their long awaited explanation of the battle from yesterday. Hopefully they would wait for the explanation before attacking Zabuza on sight, because Arashi did not think that Naruto would take kindly to his uncle being attacked.

After a little more walking, the small group finally made it back to the bridge builder's house and was greeted warmly by Tsunami. Greeting the woman back, Sakura, who had been carrying the small amount of food they had bought, gave her the food. Thanking them for getting the food for her, the group made their way inside. Upon arriving inside, unlike what the Yondaime had thought, Arashi noticed that neither Zabuza nor Naruto and his fox there nor was Kakashi awake. Thought the later was soon remedied when the door was roughly thrown open as Inari ran in.

"_Inari! _People are trying to sleep!" Tsunami chastised her son, wondering what had happen to her sweet little boy. He used to be so happy and like any other child his age should be, but now he was nothing like her little boy used to be. Now all he did was cry and morn whilst pushing everyone else away from him. He would go out for a while and then come back, as he had just done, making a lot of noise. He would not even stop and talk to them, just head up into his room before slamming that close as well.

"Not anymore," a sleepy Kakashi said as he walked down the stairway and into the kitchen, before sitting down at the nearest chair next to him. His hand gripping his head all the while as if it were in pain, which it most likely was, he had hit it rather hard when he fainted. Tsunami was about to apologize for her son's rudeness, thinking that he had already gone up to his room not caring that he had woken the scarecrow up, but surprisingly, someone else did it for her. Inari.

"Sorry Kakashi-san, I didn't mean to wake you up," Inari said, surprising both his mother and grandfather really badly and it was not just because he was apologizing, but for the fact that he was normal his normal self. Which was not normal at all.

Looking at the little boy -not knowing who he was since he had just woken up- Kakashi just smiled down friendly at him and reassured him that it was okay. "It's alright; I was already awake when you came in. Hey, whatcha got there?" Kakashi asked, point to a newspaper wrapped around something that had gone unnoticeable by all up till now.

Looking down at what he was hold, Inari looked confused at first before smiling and turning to his mother, handing the woman the news paper wrapped present with a big smile on his face. "These are for you."

Absolutely stunned, Tsunami took the paper from her son without taking her eyes of the boy, not wanting to look away only to look back to see the smile gone. Her baby had not smiled for a long time and she thought she would never see his sweet smile anymore, but here he was smiling at her with one of the biggest smiles she had ever seen. However, she had to look away to open up the newspaper and find out what was inside of it. What she found inside of the newspaper was not something she ever expected to find.

"Inari, where did you get these fish?" Tsunami asked, looking down at the at least a dozen or so fish that her son had handed her and then at the son that had given her the fish. It was not like she did not want the fish, quite the opposite really seeing that they really needed the fish, because even with the food that she had the others pick up, there still was not that much to go around. The problem was that she knew without a doubt that even the littlest amount of food cost a lot of money and she also knew that Inari had no money what so ever, which could only be explained by thievery.

"I went fishing!" was the boy's only reply.

"And I'm soaking wet," said Naruto as he came walking into the house and true to his word, the boy was soaking wet. His clothing was plastered to his body and his usually orange jacket was tied around his waist. His hair was also wet, but it was not plastered to his face, and was in its usual spiky locks, as if it were shaken dry like a dog, or any canine for that matter, would. Next to the dripping wet boy was a drying fox that looked as if it had been wet at one point in time too.

"And not to meant you smell like fish too," another person mentioned from the doorway. The group turned to see Zabuza leaning against the doorway, sword on back Sakura all but freaked out when she saw the man that had been fighting with her sensei and who she thought was trying to kill them. Sasuke's reaction was immediate and he would have gone for his kunai, but hearing the groan coming from his silvered haired sensei was the only thing that had stopped him.

"So it wasn't all a horrible demented dream?" Kakashi groaned out when he saw the Demon of the Mist standing in the doorway. Which only cause said Demon to smirk and walk towards the scarecrow. When he was right next to the man, Zabuza balanced himself on the table with his hands and leaned down so he was faced to face with Kakashi.

"Sorry to say, but no, it wasn't a horrible demented dream," the Demon said smirking into his bandage like mask, "Little Brother."

Kakashi's eyes narrowed as he looked into his _older _brother's playful ones. "Are you sure? Cause as I recall you saying we were maternal twins."

"That is true, but I also said that I was born a month earlier than you too," the other countered without missing a beat. As the two brothers continued on with their conversation, Sakura and Sasuke were at a lost. This was the same man that was trying to kill them right only yesterday, was it not? He was trying to kill them right? Something was not adding up here and to make things worse, Naruto had to add to their confusion.

"Hey, that reminds me," Naruto said turning towards the two arguing brothers, catching their attention. "You never did tell me if that made Kakashi-sensei family or not, Zabuza-ojisan."

* * *

The best way to describe how _well _the explanation went would be like trying to describe what a fish thought of well being eaten. It was not that it all went bad, it was just that Sakura and Sasuke had a hard time comprehending what they were being told. One of these things was that Zabuza and Kakashi were brothers and Zabuza was Naruto's uncle. It did not seem to sink in when they were both told of these things at first, but once it did sink in, they could not believe it. This was probably why both Sasuke and Sakura were quiet all throughout dinner while the others were all animated in conversation. 

It was also because Sasuke was thinking about what he had found out that he was not participating in any of the conversations going on around him. For starters, the Uchiha could not believe that he had not only gained his sharingan, but the ultimate form of the sharingan as well. He did not know if he should feel proud to have been the very first Uchiha to ever unlock the secrets of the sharingan eye -known of as yet- all in one time or if he should be scared of the power he know held. After all look at what Itachi had done when he had gotten the same power, he had killed the whole entire clan, leaving only three Uchihas alive.

Sakura also was lost in her own thoughts as well, barely hearing the people around her happily talk. Her thoughts were, unsurprisingly, on Sasuke and, surprisingly enough, on Naruto as well. Hearing that not only did Sasuke accomplish more than she had during the fight against the mist ninjas, but Naruto as well, made her feel like she was falling behind the two boys. Miles behind them. Coming to this realization, she also came to another realization. It was not Naruto and Kyuubi that were holding the team behind like she had originally thought, but her. She was holding the rest of her team down since she could not keep up with their skills and she really needed to improve or else she really would be left behind.

Naruto and Inari, on the other hand, were happily talking to one another about this and that, going were ever their conversation took them. Occasionally one of the two, if not both, would either burst out in laughter or choke on their food. Tsunami and Tazuna both watched as the once shell of a boy was revived again, wondering who this blond angel was that brought him back to them and wishing that there was a way to repay him for what he had done for them, even if it was unintentionally. After getting over their internal shock and getting used to seeing Inari being himself again, the Tsunami and Tazuna started a conversation of their own. Which left the two newly reunited brothers and the Hokage of Konoha to their own conversation and, not surprisingly, it was about different shinobi techniques and their usefulness.

During one of their discussions, Kakashi remembered a question he wanted to ask Zabuza about his Hakko Chakura. "Hey Zabuza, how were you able to get the Hakko Chakura to work? I mean it's not all that hard when you know how to do it and have the right sword, but that's just it. Where did you even get a sword that the Hakko Chakura To would work in?"

"I traded skill for skill," Zabuza replied, but when all he got in return were blank looks, he went on. "I used my skills to help out him and in return he remade my sword so that it was not only more durable, but it could also use the Hakko Chakura," the ex-mist shinobi said pointing to his sword that rest against the wall as he ate. "Fair trade if I do say so myself."

"I wondering if this man could fix my saber," the scarecrow pondered out loud, referring to the saber his father left to him and he broke when saving his teammates. Ever since then, he had been looking for someone that was about to fix it, but as of yet no one he had come across had been able to do the job. He was about ready to give up hope of ever having it fixed, but see that someone had recreated a whole new sword that the Hakko Chakura To could be used with then they most certainly might be able to repair his saber.

The Demon just chuckled with a small smirk underneath his mask. "You'll have to ask him, but I'm sure he could do it for you, if you ask him really nicely. Hell he could probably have it done by tomorrow if you have the saber with you."

"You mean he lives here?" Arashi asked, not knowing that such a skilled metalworker lived in Wave.

"No," the other just denied.

Raising his eyebrow, Kakashi had to ponder what he meant then when he said his saber could be fixed by tomorrow if the man was not living in Wave. "So, you're just saying that he could have done if he was here by tomorrow, but he isn't here?"

"No."

Now both of Kakashi's eyebrows were up, him being really confused and all. "Then what do you mean?"

"He's in Wave," Zabuza said simple, which was really getting on his brother's nerves since he wasn't making any sense at all.

Arashi was in the same boat as his silvered haired student, but it seemed to dawn on him what the other shinobi actually meant. "I think I understand. You're saying that this metalworker doesn't live in Wave, but he's here at the moment."

"Bull's-eye," the ex-Kiri shinobi said, eating the last piece of his dinner. "So you want your saber fixed or not? We can ask him now if you want."

"Yea sure," grumbled the scarecrow, not like his older brother's mind games that he seemed to love to play.

"Well go get your saber then," Zabuza ordered, trying to hide his smirk as he watched Kakashi's agitated form start to walk away from him and up to the room hi was using on the second floor. A few minutes later, when everyone else was just finished up with their own dinner, the scarecrow came back down with his broken saber inside its sheath.

"So where are we going exactly?" the silver haired man asked as he eyed the brunette slowly stand up and walk his way.

"Whoever said we were going anywhere?" was his reply, which agitated Kakashi even more and he was about ready to kill the man when said man took the saber out of his hand and looked it over.

"Hey Naruto," Zabuza called out, catching Naruto's attention as he helped Tsunami and Inari clear the table. Turning toward his uncle, the blond boy caught the saber that was thrown at him with ease and looked questioningly at it and then back at his uncle. "Do you think you could fix this?"

Smiling brightly, Naruto gave the two brothers one of his biggest foxy smiles. "Sure can."

* * *

As usually, thanks goes out to everyone that reviews! Me really like, since I know that other people like my writing! 

Shi no Tenshi 902


	14. Sasuke's Birthday

I know I said that I would not have a computer for a long time and that I was on vacation and the truth is I still am. This chapter is for Sasuke's Birthday, about Sasuke's Birthday, so I just had to put it up on Sasuke's Birthday. However, I wasn't going to be here, so I'm having a friend do it for me. In other words, the note in last chapter still applies, this is just an exception to the rule. I'll responded to questions in reviews next chapter, which won't be here for around a month. Which I'm sorry for. Thanks to those that already reviewed though!

* * *

Sasuke tossed and turned in his sleep, reliving that dreadful night from seven years ago. He dreamed of the night Itachi killed his clan. Even though he wasn't there to see him kill everyone, Sasuke saw it all in his dream. He saw the way his uncles and aunts tried to fight off the murderer and save themselves and their precious people. He saw his older cousins try to hide and protect the younger cousins, but nothing they did could stop Itachi from murdering the clan. He watched as his father died protecting his mother and his mother die, being beheaded, just as his past self came running in the room to watch his mother's body fall lifelessly down onto the cold, hard, and unforgiving floor. 

However, unlike Sasuke's other nightmares that ended there, this one kept going. Itachi then turned towards Sasuke's past self and started to advance towards him, his sword in his hand and the Mangekyou Sharingan spinning wildly in his eyes. Hearing his past self scream, the older version of the same boy suddenly found himself _as _his past self, his body cowering in fear. The older, insane Uchiha just laughed madly and raised the sword over his head, ready to kill the little Sasuke at any given moment. Letting the blade fly, the little boy closed his eyes waiting for the pain to come.

"Sasuke, run!"

The raven haired child's eyes snapped open to see his cousin, the only one left alive, Obito, looking just like he always did and not his past self. His cousin was holding the maniac he once called a brother off with just two kunai. Even though his mind yelled at him to stay and help fight with Obito, Sasuke's dream body ran as he was told to do. The sounds of fight started to grow faint as he ran, but just after he left the Uchiha main house, the little child heard a scream of pain ring out like the person screaming was right next to his ears.

"I'm coming for you little brother. I'm coming…"

Even with the scream, Sasuke's body keep running; running in the rivers of blood of his clan, running over the bodies of his family, running away from the one he once held on a pedestal and called his brother. The raven ran till his little body couldn't take anymore and it collapsed underneath his own weight. Shallow ragged breathes of air came out of his body before his body quickly demand more air and his body began to greedily suck in breath. Once his breathing was calm and normal, the little child looked around to see that he wasn't anywhere near the clan's compound, but in a place that wasn't mundane at all.

"Hi!" a cheerfully voice said from behind him. Yet unlike any of the other dream voices of people that he had encountered so far, this one seemed…different. The boy couldn't quite place it, but the voice wasn't like the other voices, but he couldn't really describe it in words of what he meant by different. He wasn't even sure if different was the word he was looking for when trying to describe the voice.

Turning around, Sasuke had to blink to make sure he wasn't seeing things. There standing before him was a chibi Naruto wearing a bright orange kimono. Though the little blond boy looked a whole lot healthier than his older real self did out of the dream world, but that wasn't what was confusing the raven. What confused the little boy was that he had never seen Naruto as a child or a picture of what he looked like, but for some reason he knew this was what the blond boy looked like at the time of the Uchiha Massacre. The second thing that confused Sasuke was that in the chibi blond's arms was Kyuubi, but he looked the same, which wasn't possible since the fox only looked like a kittling. He shouldn't have been born yet.

"I'm Naruto and this is Kyuubi. Will you be my friend?" the little Naruto asked him quite bluntly that it took Sasuke by surprise. "I'd really like to have you as a friend. I don't have any friends, but if you don't want to be my friend it's okay too."

"No," Sasuke quickly found himself saying, not realizing what he was doing himself, "I'd like to be your friend."

"You would? Yea! You hear that Kyuubi, we've got a new friend!" the little blond said hugging the raven tightly, squashing the little kit well doing so. Though he seemed to realize he was doing so and let go of Sasuke to look Kyuubi over, apologizing to him over and over again. Watching the hyperactive bundle of energy, the little Uchiha smiled a bright smile, forgetting about the nightmare before the dream Naruto and Kyuubi popped up.

"Did you forget about me already little brother? I am hurt you would do such a thing…"

It was just whispered, but Sasuke immediately caught the words and his relaxed state disappeared in a heart beat. His whole body stiffened and he slowly turned around, wishing his body wouldn't, but it wasn't paying attention to him at the moment. What he saw made his whole body freeze up. Just as he had expected, Itachi stood behind him, but what he didn't expect was the ex-Uchiha to be holding Obito's head, grinning like a madman.

"He could not save you. Nobody can save you from me."

Throwing his cousin's head aside, Itachi raised the sword that he had used to kill his family with and went to kill him for the second time. Yet he was interrupted again by an orange and red flash.

"No!" Naruto said childishly, though he was a child so no one could put blame to him for it. The boy's arms were thrown out on either side of him, protecting Sasuke with his own body, and a childish determination was present on his face. A glare was formed, aimed at the older Uchiha. Kyuubi was right beside him, growling threateningly at Itachi, not liking him at all on sight. "You can't have him! He's my friend! Not your's! Go away!"

And as if to prove his point, he stamped his feet on the ground impatiently.

"Foolish child!" the dream Itachi stated, raising his sword once again. _"Do you really believe that would stop me? For your insolence I shall kill you!"_

"No!" the younger Uchiha yelled, throwing himself on top of the blond to protect him from his brother. Sasuke didn't know what had just come over him, but when he heard that Itachi was about to kill his teammate, he just reacted on instincts. Instincts which told him to protect the blond at all costs and he acted upon them.

"That's enough, you are not welcome here," a female voice said and like the dream Naruto's voice, it sounded different.

"I suggest you leave before you make any of us mad," a male voice said.

Itachi never was able to finish his sentence when Sasuke felt more than saw the ex-Uchiha burst up into flames. 

"Now if I could only do that to the real one I would be very happy." A third voice asked, this one being female as well as the first, "Did I ever mention I hate dream people? Cause I do, they're too cocky!"

"That's because dream people act as the way the dreamer subconsciously sees them," the first answered back.

Suddenly Sasuke was picked up off the top of Naruto and was looking into the endless stormy gray eyes, with no white or pupil in the at all, of a man. The man had black hair that was pulled back into a horsetail at the base of his neck. His right eye had a lightning bolt shaped scar running across it and the eye itself looked as if it were unseeing. His clothing, or lack of there for, consisted of some type of feudal era red pants and that was it. The rest of his body was on display for the world to see, which wasn't that bad looking since the man was very muscular and had a very slight tan to it. He was also tall, very tall, even taller than Zabuza, though Sasuke had a feeling that he knew he didn't have to fear the scary looking man.

Looking away from the man towards the area where Itachi once stood, all Sasuke saw was a pile of ash and that's was all that was left of the ex-Uchiha. However, Sasuke knew for a fact that the real Itachi wasn't dead. This was just a dream, even though he didn't really realize it yet, his subconscious mind did. Looking away from the ash, the raven's eyes meet with Naruto in the arms of a woman he had never seen before and a man, one that could only be the woman's twin, stood next to her with Kyuubi in his hands.

"The dream is going to end soon," a third female voice from earlier said. Turning towards this voice, the raven saw that Tenpi and Tsuki stood next to the man that was currently holding Naruto. The man suddenly set him down and backed away from him, a knowing smile on his face. Taking over the two girls' hands that stood next to him, the man began to chant in an old ancient language that Sasuke had never heard of. Suddenly, Tenpi broke off holding hands with the others and walked towards Sasuke. Stopping right in front of the little raven, she set two fingers on his forehead.

"As the Goddess of the Sun, I, Amaterasu, bless you, my descendant and heir, Uchiha Sasuke, with a fire as black as night and hotter than the sun itself. May this fire give you a fiery determination and will for what ever you do," Tenpi spoke before stepping back and her sister taking her place in the same exact position, fingers and all.

"As the Goddess of the Moon, I, Tsukiyomi, bless you, my descendant and heir, Uchiha Sasuke, with a world of your own. May you use this gift for good and never to harm those innocent around you," Tsuki said, before pulling back and letting the man that Sasuke could only assume was Tomoe -the two's brother- take her place.

"As the God of Storms, I, Susanoo, bless you, my descendant and heir, Uchiha Sasuke, with the ability to control storms and use them as you please. May these storms give you strength and courage to do what others cannot," Tomoe said, before stepping away. Sasuke thought he was finished, but then the two other people that he had no idea who they were, stepped up. In between the two stood a Naruto smiling with Kyuubi in his arms. Each of the two placed one finger on his forehead, before they started to talk together in perfect unison.

"As the God and Goddess of Foxes and Rice, we, Inari, bless you, Uchiha Sasuke, with our consent as well as the consent of the Tenshi. Keep our Chibi One safe."

Stepping back, the group of adults formed a circle around Sasuke while Naruto and Kyuubi slowly faded away, but not before giving Sasuke one of his true smiles. When the boy and his kitsune were gone, the raven could hear the people around him start to chant yet again in the language he didn't understand. Though this time the words seemed to blur together and he could swear he started to understand some of the words that were being said. Soon he started to understand all of it and it surprised him, yet he didn't have the time to figure out why he could suddenly understand the ancient language when his name was spoken.

"Uchiha Sasuke, we have given you our acknowledgement, we have given you our consent, we have given you your birthright, but you have yet to give us anything in return. However, all we ask of you is for you to be true to yourself and no one else. Until you have done so, your true power shall be locked away, hidden in the deeps of your being."

Once they were finish, the dream started to fade and blur away, along with most of his memories of the dream. The dream was almost gone so the last words of the gods and goddesses were not caught by his ears.

"Happy Birthday, Sasuke."

* * *

Sasuke bolted up from the bed, panting heavily, trying to recall the dream he just had. It was strange, but he couldn't remember what he was dreaming about, which was weird within itself. He had always remembered his dreams, because they were always of the same thing; Itachi killing his family. Yet for the life of him, he could not remember the dream and he didn't wake up scared. Actually he woke up feeling happy, another weird thing, since he bolted up. Why had he done such a thing? 

After sitting there for a couple of minutes and not receiving any answer, the raven finally looked around the room to see that Naruto and Kyuubi were already up before him. It didn't surprise him that the two were already up before him, because since he had come to the Wave Country, and had been sharing a room with the two foxes, Sasuke noticed that no matter what time he woke up, both of them were up before him. Though, now that he thought about it, he hadn't really talked or seen Naruto and Kyuubi since he had arrived. The boy and his fox were usually up and gone by the time he got up to train with his uncle and neither weren't home by the time he got back from Kakashi training him with his newly developed Mangekyou Sharingan or the blond boy was already fast asleep when they arrived.

Shaking his head to rid himself of these thoughts, the Uchiha got up and made his way to the bath room. Once he finished his business, the raven changed into his regular clothing and made his way downstairs. Although as he walked he couldn't help feel like he had forgotten something that was very important about the day. He didn't ponder it for long though, since he realized that no one was here. He didn't hear Sakura complaining about her aches and pains she had gotten from training with Arashi nor did he hear Tsunami chastising Kakashi for reading his perverted book at the table. Even Tazuna and Inari's morning conversations were not present.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Sasuke looked around the kitchen to see that the lights were off and the curtains drawn closed, letting no light come in to the little kitchen. Wondering where everyone was, the Uchiha took another step into the kitchen and was suddenly blinded by lights. After his eyes adjusted to the on flow of light and he could clearly see again, the Uchiha couldn't believe his eyes. The room was the same as always, but taped to the table was a sign that read 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY SASUKE!'

Standing around the table was his team, his whole team, Tazuna's family, and Zabuza, each one of them smiling. Tsunami stood the closest to him, holding a small cake with thirteen candles, the only source of light in the room, on it. To her right, Tazuna sat at the table with a sake bottle in hand like always and Inari standing right next to him with a small bright green wrapped box in his arms. On the other side of Tsunami stood Sakura holding her own brightly wrapped box, but hers was wrapped in a bright pink paper. Standing behind Sakura was Arashi, who was grinning madly, and Kakashi was standing right beside him, his newly fixed saber strapped to his back like it had been since Naruto fixed it. Lastly, Naruto, Kyuubi, and Zabuza stood at the back of the table, the blond looking very excited for some reason.

"Happy Birthday Sasuke," they all said all together.

Sasuke couldn't believe it; he had forgotten his birthday, which he never did since his clan had been killed on his birthday. Usually his birthday wasn't a good day, but this year, this year seemed different for some reason. He didn't know why, but it just did. Maybe it was because he usually only spent his birthday with his cousin and Kakashi and Arashi if they had time to stop by. Though it was usually only Obito that gave him a birthday present, his fangirls didn't count since they really didn't care about him, they only cared about his looks and name, nothing else. Yet this year he was spending it with more people he had ever spent it with since before his parents died, people that cared about him. The only thing that could have made it any better for him would be if Obito was there with him for his birthday.

Not realizing what he was doing, Sasuke acted without thinking and the next thing he knew, he was sitting around the table with the cake in front of him and the presents scattered about. Blowing out the candles, the Uchiha was then directed to cut the cake which he did so with a clean kunai. Passing out piece of the cake to the others, the group all began to talk while eating their breakfast and cake. He himself didn't like sweets, but just to be respectful, after he ate his breakfast; Sasuke took a bit of the cake. He was surprised to find that the cake didn't taste that sweet at all, but apples and cherries mixed together. If actually tasted pretty good, which was why he ate two whole slices of cake.

"Present time," Sakura said thrusting her present before him. Looking at the brightly colored package, Sasuke made a face, but took the gift anyways. Feeling the object inside of the box, the raven knew that it was probably something he didn't need nor want, yet he opened it anyways. Inside of the box, there was a picture frame with the first picture of all Team Seven inside it. In the picture, it showed the Sakura and Sasuke standing together with Rin and Kakashi on either side of them, slightly towards the back, and standing directly behind them was Arashi and Obito. Rin, Sakura, Kakashi and Sasuke were all smiling, or smirking in Sasuke's case and no one could really tell about Kakashi. However, in Obito's case, the man was full out laughing pointing at Arashi, while the Yondaime looked startled. Though who could blame him, since Naruto jumped onto his shoulders right before the picture was taken with Kyuubi sitting on his right shoulder, both grinning madly.

"That's very thoughtful of you Sakura," Arashi said, looking over Sasuke's shoulder at the picture and smiling when he saw himself and Naruto in the picture. Pulling out his own gift for the boy, the Hokage handed it to the birthday boy. When the raven took the scroll, he looked at it questioningly, which only cause the blond man to chuckle. "It's a sealing scroll," Arashi explained to his student. "Though unlike other sealing scrolls this one can hold three times more than regular ones. Pays to have a Seals Master as a sensei, doesn't it?"

"Thank you," Sasuke said looking at the scroll, knowing that it would be useful, unlike Sakura's gift. However, even though he would never admit it, he really did like the gift Sakura gave him. Not because it was a gift that she obviously thought a lot about what to give him, but because it was the first picture he had with both Naruto and him in it. It was that reason alone that he like the gift.

"It's the least I can do for a student of mine," Arashi said with a smile.

"Enough with the chitchatting and open another present," Kakashi said impatiently as he handed his best friend's cousin a small, badly wrapped, green package. Hearing the growl come from the direction of his sensei, he looked over to see the disapproving look the Yellow Flash of Konoha gave him. Holding up his hands defensively, as if to show that he wasn't pulling anything, Kakashi tried to reassure the blond man. "It's not Icha Icha Paradise, I promise you."

As his two sensei went at it, the Uchiha slowly opened his gift to see that it was a book, but not Icha Icha Paradise. It was a book of shinobi laws. Seeing the book, Sasuke wasn't sure to thank Kakashi or toss the book away. He wasn't trying to be mean or anything, but over the years that Kakashi and Arashi came to his house on his birthday and gave him presents, he noticed something. While Arashi always gave him useful things, like kunai and shurikens, Kakashi usually gave him things that were of no use to him, or anyone for that matter, like books he had already read or stupid little tickets that he would never use in life. This gift being of the former category.

Throwing the book onto the table as Arashi continued to scold Kakashi about giving their students risqué books, another present was thrust into his face. This time by Inari who was grinning, like Naruto, up at him. Sasuke couldn't help but smile when he saw the boy and how much he had change since he had meet Naruto. It was really something, what Naruto could do to people. He always seemed to draw people to him unknowingly with his innocent nature and being pure. Taking the gift, the Uchiha slowly undid the white wrapping.

Inside the box was a twine string with a clear round stone made into it. On closer inspection of the stone, one could see that it changed colors in the different light and had a type of inner light to it. The twine string itself had clips on it as if it were to hook on to something or hook onto each other, for that fact, Sasuke couldn't tell if the gift was meant to be a necklace or something else. Taking the gift in hand, the Uchiha watched as the light began to hit the stone and throw off different color against the wall.

"The gift's from all of us," Inari explained to the young shinobi. "It's supposed to be a necklace, but it can used in other ways too if you don't want to wear it like a necklace."

"I like it the way it is," Sasuke told the boy, putting the necklace on around his neck. "Thank you Inari," he said, patting the boy on his head before turning towards Tazuna and Tsunami. "I thank you as well."

"You're welcome," Tsunami replied with a smile. "I wish we could've done more, but this is all we could afford."

"It's alright, besides I wouldn't want anything else," the raven haired boy said, being truthfully honest.

"Well now," Zabuza said turning everyone's attention towards him, "since I haven't known you for that long, and I didn't even know that it was your birthday, I didn't get you anything. Though, as to not be the odd person out, I'll give you lessons as my gift."

Sasuke didn't understand what he was talking about and was about to ask him what kind of lessons when Zabuza all but pushed Naruto forward. Looking sheepishly, Naruto handed Sasuke a small orange box. Taking the box, Sasuke wasn't sure what to expect, since the box wasn't heavy at all. Out of the corner of his eye, the raven saw a light seem to turn on in the Hokage's mind and a bright grin spread across his face. Wondering what his sensei knew that he didn't, the Uchiha opened the box to find out. Pulling out a small scroll with his name written on it elegantly, Sasuke looked at it wondering what it was.

Not knowing what else to do, Sasuke set the box down and began to unroll the scroll. Once the scroll was completely unrolled, only opening up about two feet, everyone but Naruto, Zabuza, and Arashi leaned in to look what was inside of the scroll. They were sadly disappointed to find that there wasn't anything written on it, it was just a blank scroll. However, a second later a bright reddish-orange light flared around the scroll, giving off heat. Quickly putting the scroll on the table as to not get burnt, Sasuke and the others watched as some type of object was summoned to the table.

There, lying on the table was a katana. The katana was mainly black in color and was about the size of any regular, if not a little bigger. The hilt was wrapped in a black cloth with the edges lined in red so the wielder of the katana could get a better grin on the blade and the end of the hilt had what looked like a black crystal made into it. The sheath was engraved with elaborate ruins and seals. When Sasuke had picked it up and pulled the blade out of the sheath, everyone could see three serpent like dragons twisting around in it, each with a ruby embedded in the sheath for their eyes and white gold for their claws made into the middle of the blade and a small Uchiha crest embedded in the blade near the hilt.

"I hope you like it," Naruto said meekly, his head turned to the side, not looking at Sasuke at all. "It took me a while to make, since I didn't really know what to make it look like, but I finally got it done."

"You made it?" Sasuke asked, still staring at the blade and his reflection in the metal.

"Yea," was the simply reply. The boy looked like he was about to say some more, but closed his mouth and looked towards Sasuke for a brief second before looking away.

"Thank you."

* * *

The rest of his birthday, Sasuke got to spend the day off. So while Naruto and Sakura were training with Zabuza and Kakashi, he got to wonder around the town and do what he wanted to. It was kind of a continuation of Arashi's gift to him, which he really didn't mind. Actually he really liked being able to walk about and do what he wanted to. Though it still sadden him everything he saw the stated of the village, but he noticed that since they had been there, the village had gotten just a little better and soon found out why. 

Around noontime, Kyuubi came running through the main street of the village yipping and barking happily catching everyone's attention. The people actually looked all excited and happy when the kitsune came running through the town. Followed closely behind the red kit were Naruto and Zabuza, both carrying fishing nets full of fish. Once they were at the center of town, the uncle and nephew pair started to pass out the fish to all the villagers that were already gathering around them. As the two passed the fish out to the villagers, Sasuke noticed that they gave the biggest fishes to the children who ran home to their families.

After all the fish were handed out and everyone that was there had at least one, if not two, fish, the adults villagers thanked Zabuza for the fish while the children that stayed around were either playing with Kyuubi or talking to Naruto. It was really strange to see Zabuza, a supposedly mass murdering, cold blooded killer, being nice and kind to people while the people were actually treating the man like a hero. It showed that not everything was what it was made out to be; even if it looks one way it could actually turn out to be another thing all together.

Everything else that happened on Sasuke's birthday wasn't that important to remember. All he did was train a little bit with his sharingan alone and watched Sakura practice her ninjutsu, which wasn't good at all since she had so small of a chakra reserve. He did have to admit that Sakura wasn't that bad as before though, but it wasn't something to be proud of either. After Sakura's training was over, the group of them returned to the house just as the walking dead, a.k.a. Naruto, came in with his uncle following closely behind. Though what caught both Arashi and Sasuke's attention, since they were the only ones close enough to hear the chibi blond, was that Naruto was mumbling something about sadistic family members and slave driving foxes, which really didn't make sense at all. At least the latter didn't, the former they could understand somewhat.

Yet Sasuke would get a first hand experience with how sadistic Zabuza really was. For the very next day, while Sasuke had just finished training with Kakashi with his sharingan, Zabuza appeared out of nowhere in one of the trees and told the scarecrow that he was going to start Sasuke's swordsmanship lessons with him everyday in the afternoon while Kakashi would get to train Sasuke with his sharingan in the morning. To Sasuke's distress, his traitorous sensei agreed with the man. It was within those first couple of hours he spent learning the proper way to wield a katana that the Uchiha understood why Naruto was ready to drop on his feet when he got back to Tazuna's house at night.

The Demon of the Mist wasn't called a Demon for nothing. The first lesson he had with Zabuza was tiring as hell and he hadn't even picked up his sword yet. Zabuza had made him learn all the proper stances using a bamboo shoot. How the hell he had gotten tired out of just learning how to stand correctly holding a piece of bamboo was beyond even Sasuke. All he knew was if that man was not only a Demon, he was but a sadistic bastard as well. How Naruto lived through it all he would never understand.

For the next few days, Sasuke's schedule was that of waking up and getting ready for the day to come then going with Kakashi to train his sharingan and master his chakra control with Arashi and Sakura, who was still trying to improve her chakra reserves, if he had some time before Zabuza and Naruto showed up. The group would then eat lunch together before the genin would change sensei and Sasuke would practice his swordsmanship with Zabuza for the rest of the day. When it was too dark to work anymore, the Demon would then call it quits and they would return to Tazuna's house to eat dinner and by the end of the day, Sasuke would just drop on his futon, already asleep.

It was about a week after his birthday when Sasuke's whole schedule changed.

"Get up brat; we've got work to do."

Hearing the voice through his sleep filled mind, Sasuke knew it to be none other than his new swordsmanship sensei and slave driver, Zabuza. As his body was trying to get up and do what the man said, Sasuke's mind was running a mile a minute trying to understand why Zabuza was even waking him up. Looking around the room, he saw that the sun wasn't even up and it was just barely giving off little into the predawn's sky. Hell, even Naruto and Kyuubi were still asleep, wrapped up in their blanket, dreaming peacefully or so it looked.

"What do you want?" Sasuke asked, getting up, but his sleep slurred words sounded something like 'Whatcha yo' 'ant?'

"We're going to train, what else?" the Demon replied sarcastically. "Now get your lazy ass up and get ready. And don't forget your katana."

With that said, Zabuza walked out of the room and it didn't take Sasuke even a half of a second to scrabble up. The Uchiha scurried across the room throwing off his sleeping clothes and grabbed his regular clothes, trying to put them on, while he grabbed everything he needed. Once he got his clothes on and everything he needed, Sasuke carefully took his katana out from the sealing scroll it was in and strapped the weapon to his back. Running out of the room to catch up with Zabuza, the raven couldn't wait for training to start today, since this would be the first time he would get to use his katana. Usually he was using the bamboo chute to practice with since Naruto's uncle didn't think he was ready to use a real katana yet.

Catching up with Zabuza, Sasuke followed him out to the clearing that they had been using as their practice crowd for training. Once they were there, Zabuza had Sasuke take off his sword but told him not to draw the blade. Looking at the Demon confusedly, but doing what he was told, the Uchiha took the katana off his back. Doing the same thing, the Demon took off his giant sword and laid it down in front of him while he sat down on the ground. Motioning for the genin to do the same thing, the young Uchiha sat down adjacent to him, katana in front of him, wondering what they were doing.

"What are we doing?" the raven haired boy said after they sat there in silence for a little while.

"I'm not doing anything, it's what you're going to be doing," the former Swordsman of the Mist said cryptically. He didn't even take any notice when the thirteen year old boy's eyebrow started to twitch. Instead the man just went on talking. "Before you even use that katana of yours, you must learn what that katana is capable of and trust it like it's apart of your own body."

"What are you talking about?" Sasuke asked, not understanding what the man was talking about.

Sighing, the Demon focused some of his chakra into his right hand and ran it over the length of his blade. The blade responded by glowing white before a few ruins, similar to the ones that were on Sasuke's own sheath, appeared before disappearing again. Reaching His chakra covered hand out back towards the hilt of the sword, the seals reappearing under chakra before disappearing when the chakra was gone; Zabuza rested his hand over the very first seal, making it stay visible. This seal stood out from the rest of the other seals since it was not really a seal, but a symbol. Yet it was not any symbol, but the Uzumaki spiral.

"See this symbol here?" Zabuza asked, but he didn't wait for an answer before he continued. "You may recognize it as the Uzumaki crest, but it's also connects the sword to me. The more I trust in myself and the sword's capabilities, the stronger the seals on the sword get. As I develop and evolve, the crest seal does as well. It's the reason why I can do the Hakko Chakura."

Listening to the man as he spoke, Sasuke looked at his own katana and the elaborate seals and ruins etched into the sheath. Picking up the katana and pulling the blade out of the sheath, the raven ran his chakra covered hand over the blade to see the exact same ruins and seals appear, analyzing them with his brief knowledge about seals and what they were used for. However, Sasuke couldn't place them with any known seals he knew of. They were too elaborate for him to even try and pick them apart to even guess what each one was designed for. His eyes trailed over the whole of the blade before resting on the Uchiha crest near the hilt.

On a whim, the young Uchiha channeled more of his chakra through the blade and watched as the ruins on the blade glowed with their own light. The katana seemed to vibrate with power before it started to pulse with each beat of his heart. It was like the sword had become an extension of his own body and with each pulsing beat of his heat, the katana and him became even more apart of one another. Seeing what was happening to him, Zabuza smiled, knowing that Sasuke had just activated the seals and ruins Naruto had made into the blade unknowingly, which was what the Demon was trying to accomplish in the first place.

Laying a hand on the boy's shoulder, Sasuke seemed to be drawn back into reality and looked up at Zabuza confusedly. "Let's begin."

Grabbing his own sword, the two stood up opposing each other. Both instantly falling into a fighting stance with ease, their blades were at the ready. Nevertheless, Zabuza's stance looked more perfected and flawless, while Sasuke's fighting stance seemed to hold some flaws and a little insecurity to it. The Demon didn't remark on the flaws or the insecurity the genin's stance held and it wasn't to be nice, he was going to make the boy see his own mistakes and learn form them by force. Charging at the boy, Zabuza used only a fraction amount of his strength to swing his sword at the boy, aiming for one of his weak points.

A few hours later, the others arrived in there training grounds and looked around to see the trees were scarred and chunks of the ground missing. Zabuza's giant sword was halfway buried in the ground and what looked like it used to be a bolder, but was now a pile of rubble, laid next to it. Shurikens and kunai of all sizes littered the ground and were embedded in the trees. All in all, the place looked like a major battle had just gone on there and in the middle of it all stood Zabuza with a few nicks and scratches here and there and Sasuke sprawled out on the ground looking like he had just been to Iwa territory and back again, running into a few Rock shinobi on the way.

"Man Kakashi, your brother is a real Demon when it comes to training others," Arashi commented to his jounin student standing right next to him, while Sakura looking in awe and terror at the 'battlefield' around them.

"Which I very much pride myself in being so," Zabuza said appearing right next to Kakashi, who would have jumped if he didn't see him moving towards them. Sakura on the other hand didn't have the training it took to watch the Demon move at such high speed and jumped when she heard his voice right next to them. The girl had to do a double take to make sure she wasn't hearing, or seeing, things and was looking back and forth between the spot that Zabuza once stood and where he now stood next to her serious sensei.

"No wonder Naruto came back dead on his feet, you must really torture the boy," Kakashi commented, glaring at Zabuza. The two still weren't on that friendly of terms, even though they were family, but in all actuality, it was Kakashi that was keeping their brotherly relationship from progressing forward; he still didn't trust the man that much.

"Only to family, only to family," Zabuza replied in good nature, watching the pink hair twit, as he so dubbed her, trying to sneaking away from them unnoticed to go check on the raven. "Speaking of family, where's my nephew? And the furry little companion of his?"

"We decided to let him sleep, he was sleeping like the dead when we left for this morning's training," Arashi answered, trying to lighten the atmosphere around them, but it didn't seem to help at all.

"I don't remember Sasuke ever being apart of your family," the scarecrow countered.

"He's not," the Demon replied, letting the conversation drop there, but his mind finished his thought for him, in his head at least.

Just like Naruto's brothers, he too knew about the gods and goddesses and that his smallest nephew was actually a Pure One. He also knew that his youngest nephew's Soul Mate was the Uchiha boy, which came as a real big surprise to him. Yet after getting over the shock that innocent little Naruto had a Soul Mate, and he was the same gender as his nephew, the Demon of the Mist burst out laughing much to the Heir of Foxes' displeasure. However, he wouldn't just give his little nephew to the Uchiha without any complaint at all. Zabuza first had to make sure the boy was worthy of Naruto.

That was why he was willing to teach Sasuke how to use his katana. He didn't just teach anyone one after all. As of yet, the youngest Uchiha boy had gain some favor from him, but it wasn't that much. Or at least it wasn't that much until today. The boy had gained Zabuza's respect when after countless times of knocking and pushing the boy down, he would just get up again and try even harder than before. However, there was one thing that was keeping Sasuke from receiving all of Zabuza's favor. He hadn't met and survived the wrath of Gaara and Haku yet. If anyone thought that he was overly overprotective of the blond Uzumaki, then they hadn't met the rest of their family yet.

"Want to spar?" Zabuza suddenly asked the other two men with a gleam to his eyes.

"Rule?" Arashi simple asked falling into a fighting stance, two of his three pronged kunai already drawn out, with Kakashi following suit, his saber already drawn.

"No hitting the brats and it's a free for all," Zabuza commented casually, drawing his giant sword from the earth.

"Sounds fair enough." And with that the battle was on.

* * *

"Are you ready to attack?" 

"Yes, Gatou, sir."

"Good, then head on out."

* * *

The wind whirled around aggressively before running through the trees as if searching. Coming to a little house, the wind searched far away inside the house. Finding a window open, the wind climbed through and raced passed a woman knitting, being helped by a young boy, up the stairs. Coming to a slightly opened door, the wind slammed it open and dashed to the blond boy curled up with a fox kittling on a futon. Brushing against the boy urgently, the wind tried to wake the boy from his death like slumber. 

Upon opening his eyes sleepily, Naruto found a soft breeze racing around him with urgency.

"The Destroyer's pawn comes. He come's with the intention to destroy with mercenaries that are tainted with the seven sins. The leader of which is tainted more than the rest, for he has tried to taint a Pure One."

Once the wind's message was given, the wind went whirling away, its job done. The message delivered and there was a sever impacted. Even though the message was spoken in riddles, Naruto, after years of deciphering them, knew what was going on right away. Gatou was coming and it came as no surprise to Naruto that the wind referred to Gatou as the Destroyer's pawned since he long ago figured that the man was indeed working for the Destroyer. What did confuse Naruto was that this leader that was tainted more than the rest of the mercenaries because he had tried to taint a Pure One, it didn't make sense. As far as he knew, he was the only Pure One there was which meant he should know who this guy was.

"Kyuubi. It's time to fight," Naruto spoke, his voice flat and even, unlike his usual self, which caught his the fox's attention. "Without the mask."

Taking off his sleeping clothes, Naruto grabbed his normal orange outfit and put it on. Grabbing his orange jacket, the Heir of Foxes held within his hand, clenching it close to his body. Ever since his grandmother had died, he had hid himself, his true self away from the world. The only people that knew the real him was his family, mortal and immortal. It wasn't that he was misleading everyone else about who he was. It was just that he wasn't showing his full potential and hiding some of his intelligence along with it. It was something he did subconsciously without knowing it, an instinct to protect himself from the Destroyer by hiding himself.

Hearing a crashing noise before a scream of terror coming from downstairs, Naruto snapped out of his demeanor and focused on his surroundings. Throwing on his orange jacket without bothering to zip it up, the blond ran downstairs. Running through the gapping hole in the wall that used to be the door to the house, the blond boy saw Inari was trying to protect his mother from two renegade swordsmen. The two swordsmen drew their swords and ran towards the two unmoving citizens of Nami. In the blink of an eye, the two swords were stopped with one kunai, the kunai being held in a loose grip as if it didn't take any strength at all to hold it.

"I wouldn't try anything like that if I were you-" Naruto said, his head bowed so his bangs were covering his eyes, leaving the sentence hanging.

"And a little shrimp like you is going to stop us?" one of the two cocky swordsmen asked.

"Because you don't want to give an angry fox even more reasons to be angry," Naruto growled out, jerking his head up to look at the two attackers. However, unknown to the mother and son pair, it also gave the two swordsmen the perfect opportunity to see the blue eyed boy's eyes, which weren't so blue anymore. The Heir of Foxes' eyes were just that of a fox's eyes when enraged, blood red and slits for pupils. "Tsunami, Inari, get out of here, I'll take care of them."

Hearing the mother and son pair scrabble to their feet and run back inside for protection, a feral grin crossed the innocent boy's face. Suddenly a reddish-orange chakra surged out of the boy. The raw chakra sent the two swordsmen flying off their feet and quite a good distance away from the blond, before landing painfully on the ground, chakra burns all over their bodies. As the two tainted men tried to gather up their chakra burnt bodies from the ground they heard slow paced footsteps heading their way. Looking up they saw the blond boy making his way over towards them, the reddish-orange chakra swirling around him aggressively, with the little red fox kit by his heels.

However, the little red fox kit wasn't staying little for to much longer, with each passing step that the two came closer to them; the more reddish-orange chakra from the boy dwindled down, being absorbed by the kittling. The more chakra that the kitsune absorbed, the larger it grew. When the blond finally stopped walking, his red kitsune just a few feet in front of him, the kitsune was the size of a tiger with three tails swaying behind him aggressively.

"You have given your souls up to the Destroyer and have damned your selves to an eternity of torture in Shinigami's realm. It's your time to face the reaper you have created," the blond said almost demonically. "They're all yours Kyuubi."

With that, Naruto turned his back on the two swordsmen and made his way into the forest, the blood curling scream didn't even register in his mind or the sounds of blood falling, signaling the death of the two men.

* * *

Panting hard, Arashi looked over at his two opponents with a smirk like smile on his face. It seemed even two against one was no real match for him. Though he did have to admit he was rather tired, they had been sparring for a little over three hours after all. Nothing to destructive was done, yet that didn't mean they weren't injured at all, far from it actually. Arashi was just thankful that he had taken his flame cloak off or else it would have been destroyed in the spar. 

Falling backwards, Arashi relished the feeling of the cooling wind over his heated skin. "Let's call it quits and rest."

"Agreed," the two brothers said, following the Hokage's example and falling back onto their backs, tired.

While the three men rested on the ground in front of them, Sasuke and Sakura looked around the clearing that had become the three men's battlefield. If Zabuza and Sasuke's earlier training grounds made the place look like a battlefield then the three higher ranked ninjas made the clearing look like a war zone. Trees were knocked over and up rooted from the ground, boulders were reduced to pulverized particles, and a new pound that could be considered a small lake was made. In some spots there were burnt spots on the ground, some still burning, and other areas that looked as if lightning had fried the ground.

"Sasuke?" Sakura asked hesitantly, looking in awe at the three men all but passed out on the ground.

"Yea?" Sasuke mumbled back.

"Could you keep up with that?"

"No."

"Neither could I."

Suddenly their blond haired sensei bolted upright, looking very serious, his eyes narrowed and dangerous looking. "Do you feel that?"

"Feel what?" Kakashi asked expanding his senses, feeling for what even had his sensei was so worked up over. Then he felt it, he didn't know what it was at first but it dawned on his senses. The feeling was that of a demonic power, one very much like the Kyuubi no Kitsune's felt like when the kitsune attacked. No wonder his sensei was so worked up, yet there was something different. As if the demonic chakra was fearfully, as if the owner of the chakra was in fear. "Holy shit."

At the same time his brother was cursing, Zabuza was doing the same thing, but for a different reason since he knew that the demonic chakra belonged to a certain red fox kittling which could only mean- "Shit. Naruto."

With that Zabuza was on his feet, his giant sword already in hand, running out of the clearing with adrenaline giving him the energy he didn't have at the time. Upon hearing their youngest student's name escape from the Demon's lips, both Kakashi and Arashi, grabbing his discarded cloak on the way, followed after Zabuza, running head-on towards the demonic chakra. Just from seeing their reaction from the three older shinobi, the two genin knew something was wrong and quickly followed at a slower pace, but as fast as they could go.

Seeing that Zabuza had a head start, it was no surprise that he intercepted Naruto, who was riding a three tailed Kyuubi, first. The boy's eyes were red with slits for pupils and his chakra was coming out in flares of reddish-orange and blood red. It took his no time to understand that something was wrong, dreadfully wrong, seeing the blood red chakra. Grabbing the boy off of the three tailed fox, who immediately went back to being a small one tailed fox kittling, Zabuza held the boy up to eye level, looking him straight in the eyes.

"Naruto. Naruto. Naruto, what's wrong? What's happening?" Zabuza asked with all the seriousness he had in his being, the chakra coming from his nephew not bothering him at all. The boy didn't speak at first, him seeming to be fighting to get his emotions under control and as he gained control of his emotions the reddish-orange and blood red chakra disappeared, but his red eyes stayed.

"They're coming, the Destroyer's pawn sent them," Naruto said frantically his eyes finally turning to their original color. Just as Naruto's eyes turned back to normal, the others caught up with Zabuza, none seeing the red eyed blond or three tailed kitsune. They did however see the fear within the blond boy's eyes and the disbelief in the Demon's eyes.

"What do you mean?" Zabuza asked again, making sure he heard right.

"Gatou's men are coming, he sent an army of mercenaries to destroy all of Wave!" the blond boy exclaimed, gaining everyone's attention.

Being the realistic one and not jumping to conclusions too soon, Arashi took charge of the situation. "Naruto, if Gatou were to attack Wave, he would attack the bridge first. Something which he has not done. My Kage bunshin that's protecting Tazuna hasn't been destroyed yet, so he hasn't attacked yet." However, at the end of his sentence he felt a wave of chakra surge into his body signaling his bunshin had been destroyed. "Shit!"

A second later Arashi was gone, the Hiraishin no Jutsu to summon him to the bridge with the kunai he had given Tazuna to carry if this very thing would happen.

* * *

Tthanks goes out to everyone that reviews! 

Shi no Tenshi 902


	15. Battle on the Bridge and in the Village

I'm back! But now school's starting so I'll have even less time to write fanfiction. However, do you worry, I'm determined to get this story finished with!

To** _Burning LilyRose_**: I tried reposting the 13 chapter, hope you can read it now.

Thanks to everyone else for reviewing, I read them the moment I got back from my vacation and then I started writing this chapter cause I was so happy. Hope you all like.

* * *

In a blinding flash of light, Arashi appeared before Tazuna deflecting the on coming attacks directed at him and a few of his workers with relative ease. Looking around, the Hokage saw a rabble of mercenaries standing in front of him. Bodies of some of the men working on the bridge were being crushed beneath their feet and bloodlust in their eyes. Behind him stood the alive potion of Tazuna's workers and Tazuna himself, backed into the unfinished part of the bridge like cornered rats with only the choice of death, be it by the bloodlust driven mercenaries or the watery wave's of the sea. 

"Picking on the defenseless, now that's not nice at all," Arashi said, watching awe and fear flicker in the mercenaries' eyes around him. It seemed that they recognized him as either the Yellow Flash or the Hokage of Konohagakure, or even both, which made it somewhat easier on him. If they feared him, then it would be easier to get rid of them since they would not be thinking straight. It was a good thing actually, since he had no back up or any help at all and he was not at his best, being tired after his spar with Kakashi and Zabuza. However his upper hand soon disappeared, the mercenaries' bloodlust over powering their fear.

"He's just one man. We can defeat him!" one of the rabid men screamed followed by cheers of agreement and the advancement of the rabid mob coming towards the Yondaime.

"Oh hell," Arashi mumbled to himself before bracing himself for the attack.

And just as he knew they would, the mob of men came running towards him. Drawing a single kunai, the Hokage was able to block and deflected most all of the attackers' weapons. He did get hit a couple of times with the longer weapons, like naginata and spears, but he didn't realize any of the cuts at all. The blond man was focusing more on killing the mercenaries than being killed himself. Some of the men he killed by a slit to their throats while others he just stabbed them in the chest without any hesitation what so ever. But for every mercenary he cut down three would take the fallen mercenary's place, the only thing that was keeping him from being attack full out was that only so many of the mercenaries could get to him at one time.

Feeling one of the crazed men disarm him from his kunai, Arashi jumped back from the crowd and, while he was in mid air, grabbed a handful of shurikens from his holster and threw them into the mob. Each one of his shurikens landed either lodged in between one of the mercenary's eyes or wedged inside of their heart, both blows killing them instantly. However, for everyman he had killed two dozen still remained and he couldn't use any of his massive destruction techniques or he would kill the bridge builder and his works as well as the mob. What he needed at the moment was help to take down these men without hurting any innocents along the way and if answering his prayers, help came.

"Suiton: Suiryudan no Jutsu."

"Katon: Ryuka no Jutsu."

The two dragons of fire and water came racing across his pathway, killing the men closest to him while leaving him and the bridge workers unharmed. The opening gave him enough time to grain his composure and get ready for the next wave of rabid men. However, now he just had to worry about protecting the bridge workers, seeing that the two Hatake brothers were taking care of the massive horde of tainted souls. The brothers were actually doing a pretty good job of taking care of the mob with their father's signature move; the mob was being reduced rapidly by the second, which wasn't a big surprise. When a shinobi didn't have anything to protect, a mercenary was no match for a trained shinobi of the brothers' skill.

Since the mob's attention had to be focused on more then one area, it was easier for the blond haired man to move about and attack the army of mercenaries while still being able to protect the bridge workers with ease. He would have even been able to keep on going as he was without flattering even once if he hadn't had saw a water jutsu heading straight towards an unsuspecting scarecrow. He didn't even have enough time to call out, warn his student of the ever pending attack coming his way, much less anytime to save him. He could not even use his Flying Thunder God Technique since he had no seal anywhere the silver haired man to summon himself with.

"Katon: Karyudan no Jutsu."

The fire jutsu meet the water jutsu with a side on collision, canceling each other out. Looking toward where the jutsu came from, Arashi was surprised to find his raven hair student standing at the shoreline, chest heaving up and down breathing heavily. His other two genin were standing a little ways behind him also breathing heavily. The three genin and kitsune looking a little tired after running after their much faster sensei, but they still looked ready to fight. And as if proving Arashi right about his assumptions, the three genin and kitsune were already on the bridge, Sasuke stationing himself next to Kakashi, Naruto and Kyuubi next to the boy's uncle, and Sakura was right next to him, all ready to help in anyway they could. And help they did.

As soon as they were situated, they were attacking the ever so persistent mob, this time it would seem that the shinobi hidden among the mercenaries were no longer going to stay silent about them being skilled in the same craft Arashi and the others were skilled in. Jutsu of water, earth, and lightning were being hurled at the ninjas trying to protect the bridge and the workers. Sakura and Arashi did their best to protect the innocent men from the mercenaries and everything else the shinobi threw at them. Kakashi and Sasuke on the left side of the bridge, killing and disarming as many men as possible while Zabuza, Kyuubi, and Naruto doing the same thing only on the right side of the bridge.

If this was the two boys' first kill than neither of them were showing it nor letting it interfere with their job at the moment. They were giving it all they had against the mercenaries and shinobi that were going against. Sasuke was using his newly learned skills with his katana to hack away at the men closest to him while Naruto and Kyuubi were working together with kunai and claws to fend off their portion of the mob. All was going good and it looked like they had gotten all of the mercenaries and shinobi. That was, until a powerful lightning jutsu came out from the wood towards the tired Konoha ninjas.

Acting on pure instincts lone, Arashi slammed his hands down on to the bridge sending chakra through the bridge and to the soft soil before the bridge began. "Doton: Doryuheki no Jutsu."

A wall of earth shot off from the end of the bridge, intercepting the lightning jutsu and stopping it dead whilst throwing up debris. Though the wall did not survive the attack unharmed either, a gapping hole was made in the earth wall. A clapping sound was heard, like someone was applauding them for a show as if the person was watching in enjoyment the whole time as people died. The clapping drew the group's attention to the settling debris around the earth wall to see a silhouette of a man stating inside the hole in the wall and they were on guard once more.

"Well done I must say a real bloodbath and a pleasure too," the silhouette spoke in a hard rough voice that of a male. "To have the Demon of the Mist, Momochi Zabuza. Copycat Hatake Kakashi, and the Yellow Flash, and Hokage, of Konohagakure, Kazama Arashi all to participate in such a wonderful bloodbath. Even the little kiddies were involved too, it just makes my own bloodlust that much stronger."

"Who in Kami-sama's name are you?" Arashi snarled at the man as the debris finally settled to reveal the man to their eyes.

But, instead of getting an answer from the man, a kunai was flung with incredible speed that it surely would have gone through the intended target's head if it was not caught by the target. However, the target did not get away totally unharmed, for he had not been fast enough to grab the kunai out of the air and it had cut his right cheek rather deeply. Looking towards the direction that the kunai had come from, Arashi was surprised to find Naruto thrashing around in his uncle's arms that restrained him from attack the man head on.

The blond boy had a wild look in his eyes and the Yondaime could have sworn he saw the blond boy's eyes flash bloody red for a split second and Kyuubi was not much better either. The little fox kittling was standing in front of Zabuza, a feral growling coming from the small fox that sound like it should have been coming from a bigger animal, a much bigger animal. Something was clearly wrong with the two and it seemed to be concerned with the intended target of the kunai that Naruto had thrown, which happened to be the unknown man.

"Feisty one that one is," the man said with a chuckle, his eyes glued onto the thrashing blond as if the boy was his next meal, which only sent shivers down the Hokage's spine. "He must be a real handful by the looks of it. A born killer with only one desire. To feed his bloodlust…" the man trailed off from there, taking the time to look away from the blond to the other's around him, evaluating each and every one of them. Pulling the kunai that Naruto had thrown at him up to his lip, the man's tongue darted out and licked the blood away with a sick smile on his face.

While the man was licking the blood off of the kunai, which sent shivers of disgusted down his spine, Sasuke looked over towards the thrashing blond out of the corner of his eye. He did not know what was going on with him, but something must have triggered deep within the blond to set him off as he was. Seeing Naruto like this did not set well with him, the boy was acting feral, almost demonic like, and it was scaring him. The words that the unknown man was saying even further scaring the Uchiha, yet he did not let any of it show.

Naruto was not a killer nor did he have any sort of bloodlust about him, the boy was as innocent and pure as they came. However, looking around the blood bathed bridge at the bodies of the shinobi and mercenaries around their feet and the way the blond was acting now begged to differ. Though what the other man said next frightened Sasuke a whole hell lot more than the way the blond was acting.

"How about we make a deal, I let you go all free and I'll leave this place in peace and in return, you'll give me the boy," the man said, his eyes fixed back on Naruto once again, which had all the male shinobi openly glaring him. "I need an apprentice after all and he has just the right bit of feistiness and bloodlust in him to become my underling."

"Like hell I'd go anywhere with conniving _murderer _like you willingly," the Heir of Foxes snarled out demonically, drawing the attention back to the blond, who was not thrashing about in his uncle's arms anymore. He was glaring at the man with eyes that did not look like they should have been on a young boy but an old, war torn warrior. When Naruto spoke again, his voice was even and unnaturally calm. "Unlike you, I'm no _murderer _and if I did have any lust for blood, it would only be for _your's_. I haven't forgotten nor will I ever forget what you did, _Kyo_."

Upon seeing the startled stare that came from the man when Naruto had announced his name without him giving it to them, Naruto's glare just hardened. It would seem the man didn't recognize him even in the least bit, but the blond recognized him right off the bat. Even though he was only three years old and it had been more than eight years since the incident, the blue eyed genin would never forget the man before him, even if he looked a little different, a little more ragged around the edges and not as healthy as he once had been, he was still the murderer of his grandmother.

"But you don't remember me do you Kyo?" Naruto spoke up in a calm seriously voice, his eyes narrowing when he still saw the blank look on Kyo's face. "No surprise really, after all, what sin filled being such as yourself would remember _murdering _an elderly woman eight years ago? Or using a _child _as a _shield _to defeat aforementioned elderly woman? How about selling _children _as _slaves _for profit? Do you remember _any _of that? _Do you remember murdering my grandmother?!_"

Naruto by then had forgot that Kyo and him were not the only one on the bridge at that time and did not realize what he was divulging and how much it shocked them. The little blond haired happy boy with a good life that they all had created a mental image of him was shattered before their very eyes. Both Arashi and Kakashi knew that Hoshi was murdered and Naruto was affected by it somewhat, but they never knew that the murderer had kidnapped and sold the boy into slavery. They had just thought that he had been some place else when the elderly lady was killed or traveling with Zabuza once they knew he was the boy's uncle, but nothing near the sort as what they had just pieced together with the little fragments of information they had just learned. It was no wonder that the boy had started to act all irrational when he laid eyes on the man.

Sakura and Sasuke were also very much shocked. Sakura because the hyperactive knucklehead ninja was not what she thought he was. He was not the idiot that she saw him as before, seeing him now changed her whole perspective of the boy. To her, Sakura realized, that the boy's silliness was his way of being a kid, since it seemed like he never truly had the time to be a child, he must have had matured rapidly to survive. Sasuke was just as shocked as the others about what he heard, but rage was dominating his shock when he learned that Naruto had been sold like an object into slavery by the man that killed his grandmother. It was worse than having his whole clan killed by his older brother because at least he was free and not caged like an animal.

For Tazuna and his workers, they all gained a new respect for the blond and what he had apparently went through. If the boy had survived all that he had been through without breaking, at such a young age too, it made him a hero in their eyes. As for Zabuza, he let his nephew, who he still held in his arms, go and glared at the man before him. He had spent years trying to locate and kill this man for not only murdering his adopted mother, but for also what he had put his nephews through. Naruto almost did not come out of it alive and almost died in his arms while he was frantically searching for anyone who could cure the boy. And now that he had found the man, he was going to torture him like he had tortured his nephews.

"You!" Kyo said as the light finally dawning on him. What Kyo said next, was the totally wrong thing to say about the boy while being in front of the blond's uncle, one that happened to be the Demon of the Mist. "You're that sickly blond brat that I sold in the slave trade."

"I have to thank you for showing up like this, _Kyo_," Zabuza said sarcastically, stepping in front of Naruto and the still growling Kyuubi. "It makes it that much easier to kill you for murdering my mother since I don't have to track you down."

"So I take it no deal," the man said, not even fazed by Zabuza's comment, going back to his earlier comment about trading Naruto for their lives.

"You can just go to hell," Kakashi said, felling the killer intent rolling off of not only his brother in waves but his sensei as well.

"So be it," Kyo said as he made a motion with his hands, suddenly the top of the earth wall was covered with renegade shinobi. "And just to let you know on a side comment, my men didn't attack the bridge first."

With that Kyo disappeared through the backside of the earth wall just as his shinobi jumped forward to cover their leader's retreat; however, they weren't fast enough to stop Naruto, Kyuubi, Arashi, and Zabuza from taking off after the man. Seeing that he was on his own with Sasuke and Sakura, Kakashi knew that he needed all the help he could get. Digging through his shuriken holster, Kakashi throw two pills to his genin and took one himself. Upon seeing catching the pill that was thrown at them, the raven immediately recognized it as a solider pill and following the scarecrow's example, swallowed the pill, Sakura doing the same once she saw Sasuke swallow the pill.

"Sakura, continue to protect Tazuna and the others while me and Sasuke take care of these guys," Kakashi said, his saber starting to glow white once again. With a quick nod of their heads, the three Konoha shinobi were surrounded by enemy ninjas, all fighting for their very lives and the lives of others around them.

"Hakko Chakura To."

* * *

_"Hakko Chakura."_

The attack did little help in the situation, but at least it made Zabuza feel a bit better even though the Oboro Bunshin no Jutsu just made haze clones that his sword just went right threw and the clones went unharmed. On the plus side, the clones could not hurt them, since they were just regular bunshin that didn't disappear when touched. However, it was annoying as hell to hit the same clone repeatedly and it just would not go away so that they he could actually find the real bastard. The guy was trying everything to get rid of his pursuer, but since the Yellow Flash was following him, Kyo seemed to realize that he could not out run them so he was reduced to trickery and deceit to get away, which was really getting on the Demon's nerve.

Arashi was not having any better luck than Zabuza, flustered that he couldn't find the real Kyo to torture him to near death before using some medical jutsu on him to bring him back to perfect health before repeating the whole process over again. Hell, he would even give Zabuza and Kakashi a go at it if they wanted too and if he was feeling really good about it he'd take the bastard back to Konohagakure and give Ibiki a go at him as well. If anyone were to ask him where his sudden new development of a sadistic side was to come from, Arashi would not have had an answer for them. All he knew was that he had a soft spot for the mini replica of himself which was his reasons for him being overly protective of the boy.

Suddenly, a yelp of pain was heard and all of the oboro bunshin disappeared, leaving one man with a red fox biting and tugging at his ankle with all the strength the fox's little body had. As Kyuubi distracted the man, Naruto, who had instructed Kyuubi to find Kyo by sniffing the real one out, quickly went through a set of hand seals. Once the hand seal were finished, the blond boy, who had gone unnoticed by Kyo, ran at the man with full force before thrusting a glowing purple open hand into his chest. Fearing for his life that the brat had done something to harm him in someway, Kyo forgot about the fox biting his leg and backhanded the boy with such force that it sent him flying backwards a few feet before sliding to a spot on the blond's back. Upon seeing his master get thrown back, Kyuubi let go of his hold of the man's leg and ran over to Naruto, standing protectively in front of him so Kyo could not hurt him further.

Looking down at his chest, Kyo looked for any damage done, but could not find any, and grinned at his fortune. "You missed brat," Kyo gloated, watching Naruto pick himself up off the ground slowly and whip the blood from his split lip away. However, not being foolish like others, Kyo quickly went through a set of hand seal to reform his clones as to not be killed by the Demon of the Mist or the Yellow Flash of Konoha. Nonetheless, as he made the hand seals, the smirk on the blond boy's face did not sit well with his stomach. "Oboro Bunshin no Jutsu."

Once all the clones were back up, and this time Kyo had made sure to hide his scent, Kyo moved throughout the mass of clones while the clones moved around as well to hide himself from the others. If he could just get the men to keep attack his haze clone then he could tire them out and kill them when they were unprepared. He was not going to try and attack the two men right out, he wasn't stupid, but a realistic and knew when he could be beat. However, he was also a strategist and con artist, which was how he swindled so many people and backstabbed them in the end as well. So if he played his cards right, he could knock the boy out and grab him, using him against the other two men that seemed to care about him deeply. Just as he had done with the old lady he had killed with the very same boy.

Slowly, Kyo positioned himself, readying himself for his plan.

* * *

Seeing the attack headed towards the unaware genin, he was only able to block the attack because of years of training and battles. Throwing a kunai, the metal that the kunai was made out of acted as a conductor and the lightning jutsu was absorbed up into the kunai. So when the kunai was embedded in a near by nuke-nin, he was fried by one of his own ally's attack, though none of the men seemed to care. They just attacked with all they had, driven by bloodlust and the glory and money that would come to them if they killed Copycat Kakashi. It was truly a miserable excuse for a life. 

"Sasuke," the scarecrow called out in between his panting as he stood back to back to the unknowing genin that almost had been killed.

"Yea?" Sasuke asked just as tired, if not more so, then his sensei.

"Go help Sakura guard Tazuna and the others, you're too tired to fight," Kakashi said evenly as he slit another man's throat when he got to close to him.

"What?!" the Uchiha said startled, barely parrying a kunai aimed to pierce through his heart. "Why? I can still fight."

"I know you can, but I also can feel your chakra reserves are almost depleted as well. You use anymore jutsu and you'll faint and I can't protect everyone else and you at the moment," Kakashi replied, throwing a handful of shurikens laced with chakra at the shinobi in front of him. The relatively good shinobi and above easily dodged the attack, but the others shinobi that weren't too good were killed easily enough. The shuriken that did not make their home inside one of the enemy ninjas changed direction and backtracked, which killed some of the shinobi that thought that they had avoided the attack entirely.

"But-" the raven tried to reason with his teacher, throwing his own shurikens at the enemies, yet his were not chakra laced. To him it was obvious that Kakashi too was tiring out and needed all the help he could get, but he was pushing Sasuke's help away. Endangering himself even more than was necessary.

"No, buts, Sasuke," Kakashi snarled. He then proceeded to brutally kill the ninja in front of him by stabbing him in the left lung with his kunai and twisting viciously. "That's an order from a higher ranking shinobi, you must obey."

"Fine," Sasuke said, killing one last man before leaping over the heads of the army of shinobi to assisted Sakura in her fight in protecting their client.

Sighing at his stubborn student, Kakashi sheathed his saber and uncovering his sharingan eye. Seeing the sharingan eye stunned the other shinobi momentarily, which gave Kakashi all the time he needed to perform his attack. Making the necessary seals before he grabbed his right hand, the scarecrow started to channel chakra into the palm of his hand for his attack. Soon the sound of birds could be heard all around before it grew louder and louder to form his only originally technique, Chidori. Once he had his attack ready, Kakashi charged into the mass of ninjas to kill as many shinobi as possible.

"Chidori!"

* * *

Kyo was just about to make his move and grab Naruto, but Zabuza's yelling caused him to flatter, giving the boy enough time to move. 

"Naruto, now!" the Demon said, causing the tainted soul of a man to look up to see both Zabuza and Naruto going through two sets of hand seals at an extremely fast rate. Though what made him worry, was they were aiming the attack right at him as if they knew he was the real one and not just one of the many haze clones surrounding them.

"_Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu_," the two yelled together as two waves of water came racing from the near by ocean and on top of Kyo. Arashi, who had somehow been prepared for the attack, had already moved up to higher grounds up in the trees with Kyuubi safely in his arms. Zabuza and Naruto, who had been the creator of the two powerful waves, stood right in front in the path of them without worry, since they were ready for it, the used chakra in their feet to stay put. Kyo on the other hand was washed away with the waves, his clones not being about to survive the attack, disappeared as their creator was brutally washed up against a rather jagged boulder three hundred feet away from his original position.

Before he could even try to get up, his back was roughly shoved further into the jagged rock, breaking the skin open, by Arashi's foot. Looking up, Kyo saw that he was surrounded by both Zabuza and Arashi with Naruto and Kyuubi standing a few feet away from him just incase he tried to do anything that at all.

"I wouldn't try anything if I were you," Arashi growled out before jerking his head towards Zabuza, who was gripping his sword tightly, looking ready to use it at a moments notice. "You won't want to give him another other excuse to use that sword of his now would you? After all," Yondaime said leaning forward so he could look, more like glared, into Kyo's eyes rather threateningly, "you've already killed his mother and brought harm to one of his nephews, I really don't think it's the best of ideas to do so at the moment, wouldn't you agree?"

Yet, instead of quivering if fear like any normal person, Kyo busted out laughing. Hearing the man that they had cornered, and were about ready to kill, only caused Zabuza and Arashi to narrow their eyes at the man. What was wrong with guy? They had him cornered; he should not be laughing at all. They were the ones that should have been the one to be laughing, not him. There was something seriously wrong with the man and if it was not for the fact that he was a cold blooded murderer, then they might actually look into the man's mental health, but they did not.

"Do you really think you can scare me with your idle threats, do you?" Kyo asked in between his laughter. "After all, even if you kill me, the whole village will be destroyed."

Looking at each other, Zabuza pushed his sword towards the man's throat, close enough to draw blood, which it did. "What are you talking about?"

"As I said before, my men didn't just attack the bridge. They also attacked the village at the same time as well," Kyo laughed out, "every second you waist here is another second that you could have been there, protecting them. Keeping all those innocents from being killed."

"Kuso," the Yellow Flash cursed before speeding off in the direction of the village, leaving Kyo to Zabuza.

Seeing that he was given the opportunity to do what ever he wanted with Kyo, Zabuza grinned evilly behind his bandage mask. Though his glee soon faded thinking about all of those innocent endangered at the very second because of the man right in front of him. However, the longer he stayed there and tortured Kyo, the longer he wasted time that he could be saving those people. Frowning, the Demon made his decision and shoved his sword into the man's throat, killing him instantly. Without anymore hesitation, Zabuza ran after Arashi hoping to save as many people as possible from the rest of Kyo's men. Leaving Naruto and Kyuubi there all by themselves.

Naruto just stood there, unseeing eyes fixed on his dead tormentor. This was the man that took away his grandmother and killed her all because of him. If he had not have run into the two men in the first place and expose them as frauds then they would have never come after him. Meaning that they would lure him with some type of mind kekkei genkai and his grandmother would not have had to come after him ultimately ended up in her getting killed. In his mind, it all came down to the fact that he had gotten his grandmother killed.

"Chibi One," a soft voice called to him. A voice he instantly recognized as his goddess mother. Turning around, the Heir of Foxes throw himself into the deity's awaiting arms.

"It's all my fault," the blond sobbed into the goddess's robes, "it's my entire fault."

"Shhh, it's alright. It's okay," Inari soothed her heir, rubbing small circles over his back to soothe him even more. Looking over the boy's shoulder, the goddess saw Kyuubi sitting almost right behind the boy with his eyes cast downwards and ears pressed up against his head. The sadness just rolled off the two in waves, Naruto because he thought he was to blame for what had happened all those years ago and Kyuubi because he was feeling his master's pain and it was affecting him just as much as the boy. "It's all over now."

Hiccupping, Naruto looking up into the goddess's eyes with his own watery tear filled eyes and tearstained cheeks. "But it's all my fault, it's all my fault that grandma died."

Sigh, Inari ran her hand through the boy's hair in a gentle gesture. "Listen to me Chibi One; you're not the one at fault for what happened to your grandmother. It it's anyone's fault it would be Kyo's since he was the one to actually kill her, not you. Never you."

"But-" the Heir of Foxes tried to speak, but Inari stopped him by putting her finger on his lips, affectively silencing the boy.

"Listen Chibi One, I know what you think and I know that you aren't to blame. But I also know that you won't listen to me about this," Inari said with a little bit of hurt in her voice. "That's why we brought someone with us that you would listen to."

Stepping out of the way, Inari let both the boy and his fox see her brother, surrounded by foxes, standing with a woman right out of Naruto's memories. The woman looked the same exact as the last time Naruto had seen her in person. However, she was not the exact same as he remembered, since she was transparent and she was supposed to be dead. Nevertheless, that did not affect him at all. Naruto still threw himself into the ghostly figure, which caught him with ease. Even though she was transparent, the boy did not fall throw her embrace, but her touch was chilled and held no warmth at all, which greatly different when she was alive.

"Grandma," Naruto cried out hugging the ghostly figure of his grandmother closer to him. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

"There, there Naruto, it's alright now. I'm here," his grandmother's ghost cooed. The two stood like that for a while, Naruto not wanting to let go of his grandmother, afraid he would lose her again by his own mistake, and Hoshi because she knew she would not be able to hold her little blond grandson for quite sometime. Hoshi just wanted to spend the rest of her time here on earth holding her grandson and protect him from all problems of the world, but she knew she could not since she was brought back for a specific reason. So once the boy had calmed down and was no longer crying, Hoshi pulled away from the boy's strong hold and looked him in the eyes.

"Grandma?" Naruto asked questioningly, not understanding the look on the elderly woman's face.

"Naruto, listen to me and listen well," Hoshi said seriously. "You have no right to blame yourself for what I did. I died wanting to protect you. It was my choice, not yours, not the man that killed, not anyone's choice, but my own. If anything had happened to you that night that I could of prevented I would never forgive myself. But, I have a feeling that you are blaming yourself for something similar. You blame yourself because you had the power of a Pure One and a Chosen One at the tips of your fingers, but it did nothing to save me."

"How-?!" Naruto asked with eyes wide opened, confused at how Hoshi knew about him being a Pure One and a Chosen One.

Upon seeing her grandson's confused face, the ghost could not help but laugh at see him. "Let's just say that when one dies they learn a lot about life they never knew of. But Naruto, remember, even if you had all the power in the world, it would make no difference, it was my time to go and I don't regret how I died. I died the most honorable death I could ever wish for, I died protecting my family and that's good enough for me. I lived a long full life, but you know what?" Hoshi asked Naruto, who just shook his head negatively causing the ghost to smile.

"You made it that way, because before you came along, I had no reason to live. My family was dead and my only adopted son was declared a missing nin for something he didn't even do. You made me happy once again and I hope you continue to do so for all those that have lost their way. For you, my little Tenshi, are the light that never wavers, your are the sunshine that lights everyone's day, you are a heaven-sent gift from above. You are a miracle, a Tenshi without wings, just like your father."

"My father?" the Pure One asked with big eyes.

"Yea, your father. A man that you most definitely have made proud of you, just like me. I love you Naruto and take care," Hoshi said, feeling the pull that signaled her time was up in this world. "And remember Naruto, it's not your fault for my death. Good-bye."

"Bye Grandma, I love you too," Naruto said, hugging her one last time before she faded out from his grasp. Once there was no one to support his arms on, the boy's arms fell to his side as a sniffle escaped his lips. His head hung low as to not let anyone see his face, but he was clearly crying since the others could see the tears fall from his face and land on the ground. Both Inaris stood where they were, not sure what to do at the moment and not wanting to make anything worse, they stayed where they were. Kyuubi, being the only brave one there, trotted right over to the boy and sat down next to him, purring his comfort as he brushed his head up against the Naruto's pant leg.

"Chibi One?" the fox god called out tenderly, wondering how the boy was doing, after a little while had gone by and there was no mover movement from Naruto. Not receiving a response, Inari hesitantly continued on, "are you alright?"

Slowly, Naruto looked up, but not in the direction of either of the deities, but towards the area that his uncle and teacher had ran off in. "It's really not my fault is it?"

Understanding that he was talking about the death of his grandmother right off the bat, the fox goddess shook her head. "No, it's not."

Hearing this, Naruto turned his head towards his immortal part of his family and did something that they never thought he would do in this kind of a situation. He smiled. A truly happy, unburdened smile. "Thank you for your help Inari-kaasan, Inari-jiji. I love you two, but I've got to go help my team out. After all, even if it's not my fault that people die, I'll try to save as many as I can."

Smiling, the two gods watched as Kyuubi transformed into a larger three tailed fox, which Naruto mounted as if he were a horse, before the two raced off towards where they were needed. Kyuubi ran with all his might to get Naruto and himself to the village in time to save everyone they could without using anymore chakra than he already was or else he would transform into a four tailed fox. With that much demonic chakra running through him, Kyuubi could easily be sensed out. Something that would not be good right now, or ever for that matter. However, the kitsune wished he had used more chakra once they got to the edge of the village.

The whole village was destroyed. No building stood in tact, in fact, no building stood at all except for the occasional few that were quickly being destroyed by the fighting taking place. Rivers of blood were flowing down the streets in channels from opened wounds on the living and dead. Bodies and ligaments lined the streets along with discarded items that must have been lost throughout the chaos. Screams of terror and laughter that could only belong to a manic rang out through the destruction and the sound of building collapsing under their own weight or because of the damaged that had been done to them. Though what disturbed Naruto and Kyuubi the most was the amount of innocent people that were now dead all because of the Destroyer's puppet, Gatou.

"We're too late," Naruto whispered out.

* * *

Kakashi stood right in front of his students and the bridge workers, backer into a corner like a mouse. He had done all he could to save his team and their client, but it was not enough. There was just too many of them and he had underestimated how many of them there actually were. He had failed not only his mission, but his team. He had promised to protect them no matter what, but he could not fulfill his promise. It was his entire fault. He was not strong enough to beat the enemy. He was not strong enough to save his team. 

"I'm sorry," Kakashi whispered so low that it went unheard as the men made their way closer to them.

* * *

"I'm sorry," Arashi said out loud, looking around at the limitless amount of men surround him. 

"What for?" Zabuza asked looking over his shoulder to see Arashi's back towards his. It was no surprised to him, they were surrounds easily because they were tired and made a few critical mistakes, which resulted badly. It had been a long day, mentally and physically, for everyone. So they were not thinking a straight as they normally would have, it was understandable to him. Though he just wish he wasn't about to die.

"For attacking you when we first meet. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions like I did," the Yondaime replied calmly watching the men advance slowly towards them as if to torture them with the thought of death. Though to him, he did not care about death, it was inevitable and it would be the only way for him to reunite with his family, beside the way they were slowly coming towards him looked stupid to him. It was all cliché like.

"Don't worry about it, I would jump to conclusions too if one of my nephews were being help in a water prison by someone that supposed to be a renegade shinobi," the Demon said little heartedly.

"Guess that makes us friends then," Arashi said, smiling lightly, his eyes still trained on the men in front of him and to the sides.

"Guess it does," the Demon replied, a smile hidden under his mask.

"When this is all over with and if we make it out alive, I'm definitely going to make you a shinobi of Konohagure no Sato and sign Team 7 up for the chunnin exams, they deserve it," the Yellow Flash said with humor, not sure if he would get out of their alive.

"I'll hold you to it."

* * *

_"Never too late," _the wind whispered gently into the boy's ear. _"A Miracle, a Wingless Tenshi, a Fox, always a Hope."_

"Never too late," Naruto repeated, eyes glazed over as he spoke. "Always a hope. A miracle. A _Tenshi!_" his last word was exclaimed, his eyes cleared over from their glazed over state and a grin appeared on his face. Leaning down onto Kyuubi so that his whole body was pressed up against the fox, "Kyuubi, could you get me to the center of the village ASAP?"

His only reply was a low growl before Kyuubi leap off of the grown with a powerful thrust of his legs and bounded off to their destination. Holding on tightly, Naruto watched over the fox's head as Kyuubi used the sides of walls that weren't destroyed to bind himself over the streets as to not step on any of the bodies or in anybody. The fox going faster that any normal person's eyes could not see but just a blur. It did not take them long to get to the center of the town and amazingly enough there stood one tall building intact somewhat. Motioning to Kyuubi, Naruto pointed to the building and the fox gave a nod understanding what the blond wanted.

Using some of his chakra, Kyuubi jumped off of the ground and landed on top of the build's rooftop gracefully. Not even a second after the two landed, Naruto was already off of Kyuubi's back and standing on his own two feet with Kyuubi back in his small one tailed fox form. Before he could get his plan into action, Naruto saw out of the corner of his eyes his uncle and sensei surrounded by what looked to be like all of the mercenaries in the vicinity. Not thinking twice, Naruto let his chakra flare, all his chakras. Blue chakra clashed with orange and red chakra, gold chakra weaved its way in between the two chakras as white chakra slowly started to seep into the mix. At first glance it looked like the different color chakras were fighting each other, but if they were to watch the chakras longer they would notice that it looked like the chakras were doing some type of exotic dance.

The flaring of chakra immediately caught the people's attention down below and look to where the indescribable chakra was coming from. At the time, Zabuza was not sure if it was the men that were about to kill him or Arashi that had the biggest eyes. Arashi, because all the unique chakra coming off of his blond hair student or the men because the power that they were felling was coming from such a small child. Either way, the Demon was amused to watch the groups' reaction, but at the same time, he was very scared for his nephew. He was scared because they could actually _feel _Naruto's _chakra_. His chakra was supposed to undetectable at all times, but then again, he had never used all of his different types of chakra at one time before either. All the different chakras mixed together had cancelled out the ability to hide his chakras.

Horror soon crossed the Demon's face as he watched the white chakra totally engulf the other three chakras leaving Naruto only surrounded by a pure white untainted chakra. The blond's eyes could not be seen from where they stood, but Zabuza could make out Naruto biting his thumb hard enough to draw blood before going through a set of hand seals that he recognized without actually having to see them close up. Once the hand seals were done, the blond boy seemed to write something in the air that they could not see from where they stood, before drawing raw chakra into his hand. Slamming his chakra covered hand into what ever he hand just drawn in the, the blond's voice rang out throughout the destroyed village, over powering the chaos's own voice of screams and laughter.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu:-"

Where Naruto's hand that once held chakra, a bloody red kanji could be seen by all glowing brightly. Tenshi. A simple kanji that was not often used since many thought that there was no such thing as angels anymore. However, the bloody kanji did not stay for long but broke off into gold dust particles that did not fall to the ground. The particle started to float upwards into the sky where gray appeared out of no where, spiraling outwards growing bigger and bigger. The gold dust particles flew into the center of the spiral to form a giant golden kanji for open. From the center of the kanji, a bright light came forth shinning down right on top of Naruto.

"-Kudarizaka de Hitotsu Sen Tenshi wa."

Laughter that sounded like wind chimes and bells mixed together filled the village as Tenshi descend from out of the light. No two Tenshi looked the same, but there was a vast verity of them, from redheads to blondes to unearthly looking green colors. They were all different and it showed in what the Tenshi were wearing, each wore a robe or toga wrapped around their bodies in different fashions and styles, but one thing was always the same, all the robes and togas were a pure white color. Some of the Tenshi had wore armor or held weapons, some even had both, while others held nothing at all. Though the most magnificent thing on all the Tenshi were the pure white angel wings that each of them soared through the sky on.

The descending angel flew in a circle, never leaving the confinements of the light that showed down on their summoner, each one giggling, laughing, and just having a good time. Suddenly the angels went quiet, all facing Naruto whilst still flying around the boy. The only thing that could be heard was the flapping of the angel wings, but by the looks of what was happening it was apparent that Naruto was telling them something. Suddenly the light disappeared and with the disappearing light, the angels stopped circling their summoner. Flying outwards from their circle, the angels were no longer were they laughing or giggling; now they held looks of determination on their faces.

Some of the Tenshi landed on the ground in front of innocent people or in the middle of the mercenaries, while others flew outwards away from the village in all directions. The angels that landed on the ground that either wore armor or had weapons, or even both, began to fight off the mercenaries. Some of the men were killed out right while others were touched on the head and a golden light would surround them before they would disappear all together. The other angels that did not have any weapons or armor and had landed in front of the innocent people healed their wounds and did the unthinkable, they brought the dead villagers back to life merely by kissing their foreheads while a golden light surround them before disappearing..

One in particular angel caught Arashi's eye. Unlike the rest of the angels that were flying outward, this one flew down to stand right next to the blond. Though it was not that she stood by Naruto that stood out to the blond haired man, it was the angel's moonlight silver hair and barely made out night sky eyes that caught the Hokage's attention. It was the same angel that had saved Obito all those years ago and, unlike him, she did not seem to age one bit. The Yondaime watched as the angel leaned down and kiss his mini replica on the forehead before jumping off the building and landing gently right next to him and Zabuza with the help of her wings.

"Hello Arashi-kun, it's been awhile has it not?" the angel said softly, her eyes never leaving the men surrounding them.

"It has Tenshi-sama," the Hokage said, looking at the angel in awe. He had never thought he would get the chance to meet her again, but here she was standing besides him like an ordinary person would. The fact that his blond haired student seemed to not only know the angel but was the one that summoned her and her kind was another big shock to his being. Another surprise the boy of many mysteries produced for him to figure out. It was amazing how long the list of things to figure out about Naruto had become in just one day.

Kidnapping, being sold into slavery, and summoning mythical beings were just some of the questions he wanted, needed, to ask his blond student.

Giggling at the name, Shina corrected the man. "It's Shina, though I do appreciate the horrific and all, I just go by Shina."

"If that is what you wish, I shall call you Shina-sama, but I'm not wavering on the -sama thing. After all, it's not everyday you meet an angel such as yourself and such a pretty one at that," Arashi said, a cheeky smile on his face.

"If you insisted," Shina said with a smile of her own and a giggle.

"I do insist Shina-sama, I do," the blond said, his smile widening when he heard the angel giggling at him.

"If you two are now through flirting, I would like to point out we are in the middle of a battlefield here and are about to be killed if we don't do anything anytime soon," Zabuza growled out, swinging his sword and decapitating three people at once.

"It's good to see you again too, Zabuza. I see your nephew still hasn't beaten any manors into you yet," the Tenshi stated dryly.

"You know me all to well Shina-sama," the Demon said killing a few more people around him.

"I sometimes wish I didn't," the angel said in good humor as she detached the golden chain the rested around her hips. Sending her chakra through the chain, the angel flicked her wrist and sent the chain into the crowd of people like a whip. Gold chakra leap from one link of the chain to the next like lightning and when it touched the flesh of the person on the other end of the chain, the man disintegrated into ash. Flicking her wrist again, Shina captured another man and reduced him to ash as well.

After killing a few dozen men this way and it still did not seem like she was getting anywhere, Shina started to swing the chain around her head, making a golden halo above her head. "_Tenshi: Kin no Okan no jutsu_."

The golden ring of light above her head started to stretch, forming a halo and once the halo was formed, Shina stopped spinning her chain and let the attack to do its work. The halo then acted like a frisbee and flew across the mass of mercenaries. Every person the frisbee touched were reduced to ashes and below away in the wind.

* * *

Tazuna watched as the men he thought were going to kill him for the second time that day came closer to them. In his head he was making one last prayer to the gods to make sure his family was save and that he would at least die happily. Though when he thought the finally blow was going to be delivered, a shockwave of power that even he, an untrained civilian, could feel the immense power came from the direction of the village. Looking towards the power, the whole group, even the mercenaries, saw a bright light coming out of a spiral shaped cloud and things that could not be seen coming out from the light. The group stood there transfixed on the light until it disappeared and the mercenaries' attention was once again on killing them, thoughts of the unknown light long forgotten.

"Tenshi: Hikari no Tengoku no jutsu."

A golden light appeared in a wall like barrier between the mercenaries, the Konoha shinobi, and bridge workers with the mercenaries on one side and the rest on the other side. The men that were too close to the light and were touched by the light caught fire. Though it was not certain if the fire was what killed the men or something else since the people keep seemed to start seizing the longer they stayed in the light. Before anyone could even wonder what was going on, two _angels _landed in between the two groups. Both had purple hair and pink eyes, but they were different shapes of purple and pink, and held within both angels hands were bows.

"Need any help?" one of the Tenshi asked Tazuna, who could only nod his head dumbly, not believing what his eyes told him. "We're happy to be of service."

With that both angels brought their bows up and pulled back the strings. Light started to concentrate around the bows before a solid arrow of light formed in each bow. Releasing the arrows, the angels watched as the tainted souls were destroyed when the holy light came anywhere closed to them.

"And that's how you do _Tenshi: Yajirushi de Shinsei na Hikari no jutsu_," the second angel said with a smile on her face as she turned towards the group.

* * *

A wave of the purest chakra, no matter how faint it was, washed in from the sea and into a newly formed ninja village. Nobody seemed to be able to sense the weak pure chakra wave that originated from the sea area, except for one. The leader of the village. Snake like eyes opened, gleaming yellow, showing an unsettling glee within their depths and the final piece of his plan came into play. 

"So after all these years the Pure One you have finally slipped."

* * *

"Hey!" the lighter purple haired angel exclaimed. "Where did they all go?" 

Rolling her eyes, the darker purple haired angel just shook her head at the other Tenshi's antics. "We killed them all, baka."

"Oh," the Tenshi said, looking around all the bridge, intentionally skipping over the bewildered shinobi and construction workers, and landing on the dead bodies of both the tainted and innocent. "This place is a real mess," the light purple hair angel said seriously before it turned to a childlike voice, "let's clean it up, Gwen."

"Saika, you're too much at times," the dark purple haired Tenshi, Gwen, replied as she formed some hand seals.

Again, another light appeared on the bridge, but unlike the first one, this one did not form a barrier but covered the whole bridge. The blood that stained the bridge slowly started to evaporate not leaving any trace of it ever being there in the first place. The bodies of the mercenaries that the shinobi had killed became ashes a below away with the wind, but the bodies of the construction workers did not disappear. They actually were incased in a golden light before they stood up and looked around confusedly. The men's wounds gone and their hearts once again beating with life.

"Hey! You didn't leave anything for me to do!" Saika whined like a spoiled little child. The childlike angel continued to whine for a few minutes, going undisturbed because everyone else was still shellshock of seeing the two Tenshi, until something seemed to dawn upon the girl. "I know what I can do!"

Kissing two of her own fingers, Saika laid them down on the bridge, which glowed gold instantly on contact. The iron beams and the other materials that were sitting around on the bridge waiting to be used were also incased in the golden light. However, they did not stay still but started to float to the unfinished part of the bridge and started to build itself. Holes and pieces of the bridge that were caused by the battle only a few minutes before hand were, for a lack of a better word, _healing_ itself. Soon the bridge was totally complete with no flaws in the surface, or anywhere for that matter, at all.

"Bye," the two Tenshi said together before jumping up into the air and letting their wings carry them away.

* * *

The battle was over and Arashi could not be any more relieved. They had won and with the angels help, no innocents died. Yet, the whole town was in ruins, it should not even be called a village but barren land with nothing, not even rubble was left. They had saved the people, but they had destroyed their home and lifestyles, it would take forever to rebuild the even half of the village. Arashi was not sure that it was worth it or not, but he was just happy that everyone was okay. 

Though, Arashi did not have to worry about it long, as all the angels began to kiss their fingers and placing them on the ground or little pieces of building that had survived. The places where the angels touched began to glow golden and debris around the around started to pick themselves up before flying towards one of the angels. Slowly, the shinobi and villagers watched as the village was rebuild, better than it had been before. The building looked brand new and everything that had been lost seemed to be replaced. Trees and bushes grew at a rapid pace till they were full ground and were if full bloom.

Looking around the Yondaime was amazed, however something just clicked in the back of his mind. "Where's Naruto?"

"What do you mean where's Naruto? I thought you were keeping an eye on him!" Zabuza said, realizing that he didn't know where his nephew was either. The building that the boy had been standing one had been demolished during the fight, but he thought Arashi was keeping his eyes on him.

"I thought you were!" the blond haired man countered.

"Bye Shina-sama, thank you all for helping," Naruto said, standing right in between the two arguing men, waving good-bye to the angel part of his family and watching as they angels flew back up into the spiral cloud. Upon hearing the boy's voice, the two looked down to see the blond hair boy waving to the angels as they flew away, Kyuubi sitting right as his side, tail swaying, watching the Tenshi as well. When he had gotten there, the two did not know, but it was really strange. The boy was so silent and he did not even make a sound standing there. Arashi and Zabuza did not even know how long he had been there to begin with.

"Bye Naruto-chan, make sure those two stay out of trouble now," Shina said motioning to his sensei and uncle before flying up into the cloud and being the last angel through, the cloud disappeared.

"I will," the boy said, even though the angel was gone, he knew she could still hear him. Looking up at his sensei and uncle, Naruto gave the two a foxy grin and did the least predictable thing he could at the moment without realizing it. "What do I do with him?" Naruto asked, pointing to a small fat man wearing an expensive suit and sunglasses.

"Naruto, where did you find that man?" Zabuza asked, recognizing the man as Gatou instantly.

"He was cowering behind the bushes over there," the Heir of Foxes pointed over to the bushes closest to them. "So what do I do with him?"

"Kill him," the Demon said nonchalantly, inspecting his sword to make sure no real damage was done to it. The only thing that was wrong with his sword was all the blood on it, easily to clean off. Taking a cloth out of his shuriken holster, Zabuza sat down and put his sword over his lap and began cleaning it. He did not even bother looking up to see Gatou's reaction to his death threat of kinds.

"Zabuza! You can't just tell him to kill the guy!" Arashi said, appalled by Zabuza's comment. Hearing that he was going to be spared, Gatou fell to his knees and started to thank the Yondaime Hokage of Konohagure no Sato. "Naruto can't kill this man."

"Thank you, thank you! Oh thank you kind sir!" Gatou said groveling at Arashi's feet. Unlucky for him, Gatou did not see the sadistic smile on Arashi's face as he continued to grovel at his feet.

"That's too good for him. No, he's going to pay a special visit to Morino Ibiki."

* * *

Thank you for all the reviews yet again.

**8/27/07 Edited**

Kudarizaka de Hitotsu Sen Tenshi wa: Descent of a Thousand Angels

Kin no Okan no jutsu: Golden Crown no Jutsu

Hikari no Tengoku no jutsu: Heaven's Light no jutsu

Yajirushi de Shinsei na Hikari no jutsu: Holy Arrow no jutsu

Shi no Tenshi 902


	16. Surprises for the Konoha Shinobi

Lookie, lookie! This is probably the longest chapter I will write, the reason it took so long. It is about a whole chapter and a half of my regular chapters. I feel so proud of myself. Also, I the reason why I haven't got to write that much is because my birthday is coming up and I've been thinking more about that than my writing. Nevertheless, don't worry, after next week, I'll try to write more, cause that's when my B-Day is.

Okay, I'm just pointing out that I don't know that much Japanese to make my own attacks and someone commented that they wished I made the Tenshi's attacks written in Japanese, but I don't know how. However, if someone would be kindly enough to translate them into Japanese for me, I would be oh so thankful.

* * *

Slowly the group of shinobi and Tazuna made their way back to the bridge builder's house in silence. No one really knew what to say at the moment and every time one of them tried to break the silence, they would stop themselves. They did not know what to say to each other and really did not know where to start; everything that happened was just plan and utter chaos. Questions upon questions were racing through the Konoha shinobi and Tazuna's head, yet the questions were not going to be answered. The only two people that could answer their questions were not talking, seeing as Zabuza was closed mouth about anything and Naruto was not quite conscious at the moment. 

After Naruto had caught Gatou, the boy had promptly fainted from chakra exhaustion, sending Kyuubi into a frenzy. Zabuza instantly was at Naruto's side and at no time at all the boy was in the Demon's arms to make sure he was all right. Once the Demon was sure that his nephew was all right, Zabuza and Arashi left Gatou in the care of the villagers until the ANBU arrived to take him away before heading off to meet the others with Kyuubi following faithfully behind them. Luckily, the two groups meet halfway, but neither group said a word to each other. Both groups looked each other over, taking in how the other groups faired off which did not seem to be too well.

Sakura was slowly walking with a limp at Tazuna's side and had a few cuts and scraps here and there, nothing to major. Tazuna did not have anything seriously wrong with him just a few open wounds that were small in comparison to Kakashi's wounds. Kakashi had gashes and slashes running across his body and a rather deep sash ran over his stomach though. Thankfully, the wound was not bleeding anymore, though it still looked like it needed to be treated. Sasuke looked a little less battered and bruised than Kakashi, though he was just as tired, if not more so, seeing as he was still a child compared to the jounin and could not last as long in battle as the jounin could.

When they first meet up, Kakashi opened his mouth to try to explain what had happened even though he was not sure himself, but Arashi beat him to it. "Don't want to know, save it for later."

No other words after that were exchanged and the group headed towards Tazuna's place. However, once they got there, they were not exactly expecting to see a gaping hole in the building nor did they expect to see a huge blood stain in front of the house. There were no bodies or any signs, as to where the blood could have come from, present anywhere. Seeing both the hole in the wall and the blood on the ground, there was only one conclusion that could be made and it was not the best of conclusion either.

Shakily, Tazuna step forward towards his house, his whole body shaking. "Tsunami, Inari," Tazuna whispered out, before running towards his house yelling out his daughter and grandson's names, hoping to find them unharmed. "TSUNAMI! INARI! Where are you? Please be alright, please!"

"Dad?" a hesitant voice asked, before Tsunami came around from the back of the house slowly to make sure that there was no more swordsmen trying to kill her or her son. Upon seeing her father, relief washed through her. "Dad!"

"Grandpa!" Inari said coming around from behind his mother and running towards his grandfather, his mother right on his heal. Jumping up into his grandfather's arms, the little boy held on tightly, not wanting to let the man go. He would openly admit to anyone that he was scared for not only his life but also that of his whole family and new friends. First, it was the swordsmen that tried to kidnap his mother and kill him, and then it was fear for Naruto taking on the swordsmen while him and his mother away. The strange wave of power that he and his mother felt did not help his nerves any at all, since he did not know what the power was or where it had come from, it scared him.

"Inari," the bridge build cried out hugging his grandson as tightly as he could without hurting him.

"I was so scared, they were going to kill me and I didn't know what to do! They already had mommy in their grasps and I did not know what to do about it! It was frightening," Inari, rambled on, his fears coming out with each word he spoke and at the rate he was talking; it was obvious he was still shaken up. It was hard to even understand what he was say, since he was talking faster than they could comprehend. "But then Naruto appeared out of nowhere and said something that seemed to scar the swordsmen. It gave us the time to get away while Naruto took care of the swordsmen. A few seconds later, we heard screams of terror and growling before all was silent. When everything was quiet again, mommy looked out and all she saw was blood. Bu-but there was no _Naruto_," the boy broke down crying.

"Dad, I didn't know what to do. We have to find Naruto, he saved our lives," Tsunami explained, tears running down his face at the thought of the boy that saved her and her son's lives.

"It's alright, everything's going to be fine now," the bridge builder tried to sooth, shifting to hold Inari in one arm while hugging his daughter with his free arm. "Naruto's fine, don't worry about him. He's right here."

Hearing the blond boy was okay, Tsunami swerved around to see that the shinobi were standing a few feet away from them. All of them looked battered and beaten; they looked as if they had been utterly defeated. Something that would have been true if it were not for the fact that those being there must have meant they had won. The shinobi all seemed to be dead on their feet, tired and exhausted, and in the midst of it, all was Zabuza holding a battered Naruto in his arms and Kyuubi by his feet. Just seeing the group cause Tsunami to gasp and brought more tears to his eyes.

"Oh my, what happen to them?" Tsunami asked, untangling herself from her father's grasp and taking a small step towards the group.

"We had a little run in with a few people that we didn't exactly see eye to eye," Arashi said, grinning faintly, yet he seemed to flatter a little bit.

* * *

"Ow!" Arashi complained as the woman whipped a cloth saturated in alcohol over one of his open wounds, which did not seem to earn him any sympathy at all. Actually it just cause Tsunami to press the cloth harder into the wound making the Hokage hiss out in pain even more, showing him no sympathy. Something that Arashi did not quite like, he just helped save their village after all! So what if he was sounding childish, he was tired and covered in battle wounds, give a guy a break. 

"Quit being a baby," Tsunami said setting the cloth down and picking up a roll of bandages. After she finished wrapping the roll of bandages around the Hokage's wounds, the bridge builder's daughter patted the man's head and moved to collected all of the medical supplies. She had already taken care of Hatake brothers' wounds and Sakura had taken care of her own wounds and Sasuke's, so they were not needed anymore. As for Naruto's wounds, once Tsunami was finished with Zabuza's wounds, the Demon went upstairs to the boy's room where they had placed the boy when they arrived, to rest to take care of his nephew's wounds himself.

"So Kakashi, what exactly happened at the bridge after I left?" Arashi asked once Tsunami was gone. The Yondaime really did not want to talk about what happened in front of Tsunami and Inari, because it was not something that they should hear. Seeing now that Tsunami left the room and Inari had been sent to get some more supplies for his mother, it was safe to talk about it. The Hokage did not mind that Tazuna was still there since he had been on the battlefield and witnessed everything first hand. Actually, he would be a big help, since he watched the fight as well and could put in his input on what happened.

Sighing, Kakashi rubbed one of his bandages, not sure what to tell his sensei. "I don't think you would believe me if I told you."

"Try me."

"Well sensei, it's like this," the scarecrow said as he began to tell Arashi everything that happened after he had left to the time the angels had arrived. When he was finished telling what had occurred on the bridge, the blond man did not say anything, but had both Sasuke and Sakura tell their point of view on the bridge also, he even let Tazuna have his say in what happened as well. However, unlike the disbelieving look Kakashi swore he would have seen on his sensei's face, there was a believing look in the Hokage's eyes. One that said he believed every word that was said no matter how unbelievable it sounded to even his own ears and Kakashi had seen it with his own eyes!

Arashi had just opened his mouth when a scream rang out through the house. Instantly everyone was rigid since the scream had come from within the house and they knew exactly who it was, Tsunami. The group was about to run towards where the scream originated from, but hearing the quick rough steps of the woman coming downstairs and the woman was then in front of them. Her face was pale and an apprehensive look on her face.

"Tsunami, what is it?" Tazuna asked worried about his daughter's well being and what was wrong.

'I-it-it's Na-nar-ruto," the woman stumbled over her own words trying to get what she saw into words, but it would seem that her mind and vocal cords were not connected properly at the moment and she could not talk.

Upon hearing the blond boy's name, Sasuke went even more rigid than before, thoughts racing as fast as they could of what could have happened to the blond boy. However, Tsunami's next words were not anything that he had come up with and were not what he wanted to hear.

"Naruto… he's gone."

"What do you mean he's gone?" Arashi asked hesitantly not wanting to believe what he was hearing. The boy had just saved all their asses and now he was gone? What had happened to him? No one had come into the house that he had felt and Zabuza and Kyuubi were with the boy, they would have protected him from any harm that would have come to the boy. This only left him with more questions than answer. What had happened to Naruto? Was he… dead? Is that what Tsunami meant when she said gone?

"I mean he's gone, the futon he was sleeping on is empty and he's gone. So is Kyuubi and Zabuza as well," the bridge builder's daughter said, not sure what else to tell the man. She was scared, the boy that not only saved her and her son but also helped save her home village was now gone when he was supposed to be resting. She had just gone to check on the boy and was greeted by an empty futon and the window wide open, curtains billowing in the breeze.

"Zabuza and Kyuubi are gone as well?" Kakashi asked knowing that something did not quite add up here. When Tsunami just nodded her head positively, the scarecrow tried to find the missing piece of this little puzzle. It was then that he remembered what Naruto had said at the bridge and it seemed to click at where his brother and the boy were. He had done the exact same thing when he had thought Obito had died and the shinobi that had been responsible for his death was dead.

He had gone back to where Obito's body was supposed to be buried under the rock and prayed. He had prayed for Obito and prayed for his forgiveness for not helping sooner. Kakashi spent almost the whole night there and when he got back to the camp, he went straight to sleep with a heavy heart and a grief-stricken conscious. Though the next morning he had gotten the surprise of his childhood life when he had not only found Obito's body intact and in their camp area, but _alive _as well. Something that had almost given his young body a premature heart attaches.

So why would it be different for Naruto? Or even Zabuza? The killer of Hoshi had just been killed, finally giving the two a peace of mind after years of the bastard being free and causing havoc on the world. Would they not want to go visit the woman's grave as he had done? It was the only plausible reason. Why else would Zabuza, Naruto, and Kyuubi be gone so soon after the battle? They did not even give themselves time to heal at all, hell Naruto was unconscious the last time he saw the poor boy.

"I think I know where they are," the scarecrow said coming back from his thoughts and into reality. Hearing what the Copycat said, the whole group turned toward the man, encouraging him to tell them with their eyes since he had not spoke since they began discussing what could have happened to the boy. The jounin just seemed to zone out while the talked about it and now he was telling them he knew where their missing comrades were, they were all ears. "Hoshi's grave."

"Are you sure that they would be there?" Sakura asked, not understanding her silver haired teacher's logic. However, it would seem that everyone else understood what the scarecrow was getting at, having lost people close to them themselves, and agreed with him with a solemn look on their faces.

"Trust me, they are," Kakashi replied, but made no moved to the door to go get their missing teammate and uncle, which confused the cherry blossom greatly.

"Shouldn't we go get them then?" the pink haired girl asked, but the others just shook their heads negatively.

"No," Sasuke surprisingly explained to the girl, since he had never explained anything to the girl before, "they need their space at the moment."

* * *

They had been sitting there for hours, not moving an inch except for the slow and steady rise and fall of their chest as the only sign that they were alive. The both of them had been sitting on their knees, hands held in front of their chests in a prayer like fashion, and their eyes closed. Every now and again one of the two, if not both, of their lips would move slightly as if saying something but no sound coming out. Sitting in between the two was a little red fox with his head bowed as if he too were praying and in front of the two stood a small grave marker of the one they were praying to. 

Finally, when the moon was high in the air and the sun fast asleep, the two finally gave one finally prayer and finally stood up. However, Naruto almost fell back down since his legs were numb from lack of blood flow. Thankfully, his uncle caught him easily enough. Looking up at Zabuza, the blond gave him a weak smile that he only reserved for his precious people and even then, he rarely used it since Hoshi's death. This smile was not big, but small and sweet that reached his eyes and showed the world his happiness. The very smile caused people to open up to the little blond boy.

"Thank you Oji-san," the boy simple said, but it had so much meaning behind his words. He was not really thanking his uncle for catching him, but for everything that he had been though because of the blond boy. Naruto was thanking the man for saving him and his brothers from the slave traders all those years ago. He was thanking him for search desperately for a med-nin for him afterward when he was all but dead. He was thanking him for having to constantly be on the move because of people trying to find him and never truly having a home of their own. Moreover, he was thanking the man for just being there for him when he needed him the most.

"That's what family for, we're always there for one another till the end," the Demon replied, meaning ever word of it, giving the boy a smile of his own knowing the boy could see it through his mask and read his face.

Giving his uncle one last smile, Naruto stood on his own two legs that were still slightly numb and did something that Zabuza never thought the blond would do. The Heir of Foxes took off his orange jacket of his jumpsuit and folded it neatly. Zabuza watched as the blond placed it lovingly in front of his grandmother's grave. Kyuubi, who somehow managed to get his muzzle a hold of a bunch of wild flowers that did not grow anywhere in the vicinity, then laid a small bunch of flowers on top of the jacket. Together the two gave one last bow simultaneously before returning to Zabuza's side.

"Naruto?" Zabuza asked, knowing the boy would understand his question of what just happened without him actually having to ask the boy right out.

"Grandma can finally move on, meaning I can too," the boy explained with wisdom only a Pure One could gain. "I'm a shinobi, but first I'm a human. I have lived my life wearing that jumpsuit to remind me what I have lost and why I fight, but now I can move on. Nonetheless, I will never -ever- forget what I have lost and why I fight, it's just time to move on from the past and look towards the future. Learning form our mistakes is what makes us who we are and those who don't learn from their mistakes shall be damned to repeat them again and again until they do learn from them or else they will die."

"Well said Chibi One, well said," both Inaris said coming out of the forest with their foxes on their heels.

"Inari-kaasan! Inari-jiji!" the blond exclaimed going from a wise persona to his usually childlike persona, Kyuubi doing the same thing and bouncing around the new arrivals feet.

"Inari-sama, Inari-jiji," Zabuza said, bowing deeply to the female fox goddess and bowing regularly to the male god before standing up straight. "It is good to see you again."

"As it is good to see you too again, Chosen One of Shinigami," the goddess spoke, giving the Demon of the Mist a bow of her own, which is only natural when dealing with one of the oldest god's Chosen One and even further so when the it is the Chosen One of the God of Death. "However, we are not here for pleasantries-"

"-but to warn you," the male deity picked up where his sister left off. "The Destroyer knows of your location. He is coming for Chibi One."

Upon hearing the news, the three went rigid, surprise showing in their eyes, but before the two could do anything the two deities spoke together as one once again.

"Be ready for anything. Until we can be of move service, we must leave you," and with that they were gone just as quickly as they had arrived, leaving the others in silence.

"I think we've overstayed our welcoming here," Zabuza said after a while of the silence.

"Agreed, but what of the people here? The Destroyer won't like it if he can't find me and will destroy these people to get what he wants," Naruto said, eyes filled with sadness.

"No he won't," the Demon said causing the Pure One's head to swerved to the side to look him in the eyes with a questioningly look. The Demon just grinned and a glint of something indiscernible was seen in his eyes before disappearing. "He doesn't know that we know that he has discovered where you are located. Therefore, if we leave soon enough and he cannot find us, he won't attack the city knowing that if he does, then we will become warily of him and be on the move again. In other words, he'll leave Nami's people alone."

Hearing that the people of Wave would be all right, Naruto grinned and the two made their way back towards the house they were currently staying at with Kyuubi riding on his shoulder. Both knowing that if they moved quickly enough, the Destroyer would lose their trail. It had not been the first time that the Destroyer had found them, which was the reason why they were always moving, but it was the first time that the fox deities had warned them about the Destroyer being close. Something that told them exactly how close he was to them really. Yet the last time the Destroyer had found them, they split up, Zabuza leading the Destroyer on a wild goose chase while they hide, which was how Naruto and his brothers ended up in Konoha. It was a wonder that the Destroyer still had not found out that it was Naruto that was the Pure One; he just followed their trails and leads but never once caught them.

When they reached the house, they saw that there were no lights on meaning that no one was awake at the moment. It kind of made Naruto wonder how long they had been gone exactly. He knew that as soon as he woke up that he tried to leave with Kyuubi to go visit his grandmother's grave, but he was still slightly disoriented at the time. That did not mean he gave up, it just meant that it took him awhile to even try to get to the grave. However, his uncle had come in at that time and instead of scolding him like any other reasonable uncle would, Zabuza just merely picked him and Kyuubi up before jumping out the window and taking him to see Hoshi's grave.

The group made their way into the house being as silent as possible, but they did not expect to see Arashi and Kakashi stilling at the kitchen table, a small candle the only light in the house, looking directly at them. So small that it could not be seen from outside, this was why they both thought that no one was awake. Both Leaf ninjas looked like they were not going to be falling asleep anytime soon, meaning only one thing. They wanted answer for the many questions that they had acquired over the day. No doubt, that they were all surround Naruto and some things that they could not quite answer without sounding like they needed to go to a nuthouse.

"I'm guessing you want answers, ne?" Zabuza asked, being the first one to break the silence.

"That would be nice, _brother_," Kakashi said sarcastically.

"Well I'd be happy to give them to you, _little brother_," the Demon answered back just as sarcastically as his brother. "But before we begin, I really don't like eavesdroppers. If he really wants to know, he can just come out here and sit with us and listen like any normal person would."

Hearing that he had been caught, Sasuke came out from the shadows on the stairs and looked around ashamed as possible for him, which really was not that much. Nevertheless, once he saw Naruto looking at him curiously but still with a smile on his face, the Uchiha decided that he really had not done anything wrong. It was better for their teamwork, not to mention his mental health, which he found out what was going on with his teammate, and secret crush. It was not as if he was going to tell anyone what had been said. He did not betray people like that, because he was not going to turn out as his brother had and betray his trust in people. That is why he took a seat in the first available seat to him.

"So where should we begin?" Zabuza asked in good humor as he sat down right next to his brother and looked him in the only eye that was uncovered. Naruto also took a seat which happened to be right in between Arashi and Sasuke, the later of which slightly giddy that the blond had wanted to sit next to him and the former of which being the only to see the Uchiha's giddiness towards the boy. Sometimes it was fun to watch the Uchiha boy try to scold his emotions when the blond boy was right next to him. Arashi was so glade that Obito had told the him that his cousin had a crush on Naruto, seeing he enjoyed every minute of watching the raven fight with himself and the blond not realize what he was doing to the raven at all. Ironic really.

Knowing this was a delicate subject, but being Hokage and all he really needed to know. Looking worriedly towards Naruto once and then at Zabuza, Arashi knew their reaction was not going to be good. More so on Naruto's part than Zabuza. Pulling his nerves together, the Yondaime tried to find a way to put it as delicately as possible without having an explosion like reaction coming from the Demon and waking the rest of the household up.

"What did Kyo do to you exactly?" Arashi finally asked Naruto, not missing the way Zabuza tensed up at the mentioning of Kyo's name, or the way Kyuubi stiffened and Naruto winced. Seeing the boy winced cause the fourth to regret asking the blond boy about Kyo, but he needed to know, no matter how much it pained him to ask. It still hurt to see the way Naruto bowed his head just in the right way that his bangs covered his eyes and hid emotions from everyone else. Nevertheless, what hurt even more than him trying to hide his emotions from everyone else was the sight of the stray tear he saw fall to the floor from the boy's hidden eyes.

Not looking up, Naruto answered his sensei's question, trying to keep his voice steady, but no matter how much he tried his voice still came out trembling. "He killed my grandmother and sold me into slavery when I was not even four years old. What else is there to know?"

"Nothing else?" the Yondaime pushed one, his heart hurting as he watched the boy. The blond was struggling with his own emotions and memories of the past trying to find the right words to answer his question, but it seem to hurt him even more when Arashi saw another tear fall from the boy's covered face. Seeing the blond shut his mouth and shake his head negatively, Arashi wanted to so badly give a sigh of relief, but refrained from doing so. He was not finished yet with his questions on the hard period of time in Naruto's life; he needed to find out more. At the moment, Arashi hated himself and he could see out of the corner of his eyes that both Zabuza and Sasuke hated him too for questioning the blond about his past. Nonetheless, it had to be done and with a mental sigh, the Yondaime continued. "Naruto, can you tell me exactly what happened after you were sold into slavery?"

"I don't remember much," the boy said softly, his words trembling less than before, but still trembling all the same. "I was too sick at the time and everything was hazy and blurry to me. I do remember being almost sold a couple of time to some people, but once they found out how sick I was they didn't want anything to do with me. I almost died there from lack of medical treatment but Oji-san saved me by taking me to the best healer that he could find after rescuing me. That's all I can really remember."

With that, the small group fell silent, each in their own thoughts. The silence did not last too long, since Arashi still had more, less emotional, questions to ask.

"Can you tell me about the angels?" Arashi asked, gaining both Sasuke and Kakashi's attention, since he had not told them that the reason for the angels coming was because of Naruto. They just heard the overall story that the angels had helped them out and so they did not know that Naruto was connected with the angels at all. It was a shock to their system as it had been to Arashi's when he had found out himself.

"Tenshi, they're called Tenshi and they're my summonings," the blond said, finally looking up, slight tearstains could be seen on his face, but he was smiling now. "But most importantly they are my friends. They're the reason I survived through my time in slavery. Shina-sama, the oldest and highest angel, keep me company while I was unconscious it was then she gave me the summoning contract to be able to summon her and her kind out of their domain. Though if I hadn't taken the deal at the time then I wouldn't be alive today, the deal was the only thing keeping me alive at the time, holding me to life until Oji-san had saved me and got me to a healer."

"They're summonings?" Kakashi asked surprised and confused. For all the stories he had heard about angels were that they were Kami-sama's helpers that helped those who were pure of heart and had good intentions. He also heard that they helped the dead pass on into Shinigami's domain where the God of Death could judge them. So learning that angels were summonings was a big surprise for him. Sasuke also wondered about the whole summonings thing, but he was more focused on the last part of what his crush had said, the part that he would've died if he had not had signed the contracted with the Tenshi at the time. Naruto must have really been near death at the time for a Tenshi to have to hold on to his life as the boy had explained to them.

"Yea, and as of yet I'm only the second being that has been able to summon them," Naruto said, a little proud of this fact. "Shina-sama said it was because I had a pure soul and a pure heart that I was able to gain the contracted with her."

"And the first person?" Arashi asked, wondering who had summoned Shina the first time to save Obito's life as she had done.

"Kami-sama."

* * *

"Bye!" Naruto waved enthusiastically to Tazuna, his family, all the bridge workers, and many of the villagers were there to see them off. It had only been a day after the fight, but Arashi, with a little persuading by Zabuza, had decided that they should get back to Konohagakure as soon as possible. Therefore, after a good night's sleep and a big breakfast thanks to Tsunami, the group was ready to go. However, as the were about to cross the bridge all the bridge workers and villagers showed up to show their thanks and see them off. 

"Bye Naruto-niisan," Inari cried, but not letting the tears in his eyes fall, hugging onto Naruto's leg, not wanting to let him go.

Seeing that the boy was not going to let him go anytime soon, and that everyone was still thanking the rest of his team and uncle, Naruto kneeled in front of the boy. "You know it is okay to cry if you really want."

"I'm not going to cry," Inari sniffled, but he could not hold back the tears that traveled down his cheek. "I don't want you to go though, 'because you'll never come back again."

"Who says?" the Pure One asked a small smile on his face, whipping away the tears from the boy's face with his hand before he reached under the black shirt he was wearing. He was still wearing his orange jumpsuit pants since he had not brought any other clothes with him, not as if he had any other clothing other than his jumpsuit being poor and all, and the black shirt that usually went unseen while he was wearing his jacket. From beneath his shirt Naruto pulled out the two necklaces that he always wore, but like his black shirt, usually went unseen. Tucking one of the necklaces back under his shirt, the blond took the other one off and put it over Inari's head, letting it rest there.

Picking up the pendant on the necklace, Inari examined it to find that it was a simple red swirl. "What's this for?"

"It symbolizes that I won't forget you and a promise to come back to visit. It also symbolize that you're an honorary member of the Uzumaki clan and like any real Uzumaki, none of us are Uzumakis by blood anymore," Naruto explained, making Inari to gasp in surprise that there was actually no more Uzumakis by blood. Though it made him feel happy, that he was now an honorary member of the Uzumaki clan. "Goodbye, lil' brother."

"Bye Naruto-niisan," the boy said watching as Naruto ran and caught up with the rest of his group that had already started to across the bridge.

"I think we should name the bridge the Great Uzumaki Naruto Bridge," Tazuna said, coming up to stand beside his grandson, who was looking up at his grandfather. "After all he was the one to give us all courage to do what we thought was right."

"You know what Dad, I think that was a wonderful idea," Tsunami told her father, happy about his decision.

* * *

Team 7 and the former Demon of the Mist made their way towards Konoha, each doing their own things. Arashi and Kakashi were having their own conversation about what they were going to do first when they got back to Konoha, while at least that was what it started as, but now it was more of a debate about ramen. Needless to say, Arashi was winning. Naruto was fast asleep on Zabuza's back, having not slept that much the night before and it was taking its toll on his small body, which was the reason why his uncle was carrying his sleeping form. Seeing that both Naruto, since he was sleeping and Zabuza's hands were full, Kyuubi could not catch a ride with either one of them, so he went for the next best thing. Kyuubi caught a ride and sleep in Sasuke's arms while the boy walked back to Konoha. Thankfully for the fox, the raven did not mind carry the kitsune since the fox was asleep and was not moving that much. It did not hurt that said fox was the pet of his crush. 

Finally, there was Sakura, who was lagging behind the group a little ways, yet not so much that she would fall too far behind and get lost. It was strange for the girl not to be hanging herself all over the Uchiha, but since everyone was doing something else, no one really realized that she was not doing so. Sakura was actually deep in her thoughts about all that had happened during their first C-ranked mission. Of them all, she was the most useless person on the team during the whole mission. Her blond haired sensei had told her that Naruto had helped him out during his fight in the village -he had just failed to mention that it was Naruto who was the one that summoned the angels- and she had seen first hand what Sasuke had done on the bridge. To her it looked like she was the one being left behind, way behind, the boys and she was not needed.

Sakura did not quite know what to do about it. She did not want to be left behind like she felt like she during the mission, but she really did not know what to do. The pink haired girl finally saw what it was really like to be a true shinobi and saw her faults, which was a real revelation for her. She finally found out what a true shinobi should be like and it was not how she was. It was then that Sakura decided that when she got back to Konoha the first thing she would do, after checking in with her parents, was to go find Rin and tell her female sensei that she was finally ready to become a real shinobi.

While Sakura was in her own thoughts and Arashi and Kakashi's debate finally finished, the winner being Arashi, Zabuza thought that it was time to remind Arashi of something that he had said earlier to him. "Arashi, aren't you forgetting about the promise you made during the fight for our lives? Something about the some exams important to every genin shinobi's career."

Hearing what his brother had said, Kakashi instantly knew what the man was referring to and spoke up. "What's this about the Chunnin Exams?"

"You'll see," the Yondaime said smiling a grin that was worth of only a fox. "Sasuke, Sakura, will you come here for a moment?" Arashi called to his students, who came to his beckoning call.

"Yes sensei?" Sakura asked coming to walk instep with both her sensei and Zabuza.

"Because of a little deal I made with Zabuza, I'm going to enter you all into the Chunnin Exams coming up in two weeks," the Hokage said watching the two's reaction. He was not disappointed. Upon hearing his declaration, Sakura almost tripped over her own feet and Sasuke looked like he had almost drop Kyuubi, jerking the fox awake. Both Sakura and Sasuke looked up at Arashi with a disbelieving look on their faces once they got over their shock.

"What?" Sasuke asked making sure he was not hearing things.

"You're going to be taking the Chunnin Exams, if you want to anyways," though Arashi did not even have to say anything, judging by the edger looks he was getting and they way they were shaking their head yes. "Well that's good to know. And since the Chunnin Exams are in only two weeks, I've decided to give you both weeks off train how yourselves how you want to. Though if you need any help, know that all your teachers and I will be available to you if you need it."

"Thank you sensei," Sasuke and Sakura said simultaneously, before each going into their own thoughts, planning how they would each spend their two weeks training.

Chuckling, Kakashi smiled under his mask watching his students reaction at well. He just wished his youngest student were awake since he figured his reaction would have been most spectacular because of how happy and hyperactive the little child was. "I see, so you made a deal with Zabuza to put Team 7 into the Chunnin Exams?"

"And to become a shinobi of Konoha," Zabuza add, causing Kakashi to flatter in his walking.

"What?" Kakashi screamed out.

"'Kakashi-sensei, why are you yelling?" Naruto asked just waking up, but it sounded more like 'Kashi-sensei, wh' ar' 'ou y'lling?'

Looking back, Zabuza saw that his sleeping nephew's sleep filled blue eyes half opened and had to chuckle when the man the boy yawned and it looked like his whiskers on his face twitched. Seeing that Naruto's now had fully opened and awake eyes were looking at him curiously, the Demon swung the blond drown from his back so that the boy was walking in front of him. Walking on his own two feet, Naruto looked around to see where they were and where Kyuubi was. However, he did not even have to look for Kyuubi because as soon as the boy was awake, Kyuubi gave Sasuke a thank you lick on the cheek before jumping out of the boy's arms and onto his Naruto's shoulder. Smiling at his little fox, Naruto looked up at the Uchiha and gave him a smile as a thank you for taking care of the red fox when he was asleep. However, Naruto turned his head away from the raven before he could see the small blush stain his cheeks before looking away from the blond boy himself.

Looking back at Kakashi, Naruto asked him again why he was yelling, which Zabuza happily answered for him. "He's yelling because he just found out I'm going to become a shinobi of Konoha."

"You are?" asked the blond hair boy in awe and excitement since his uncle was going to become a Leaf shinobi like him. "That's great!" Suddenly, Naruto stopped bouncing around in happiness and pointed out in the distance. "Hey, isn't that Konohagakure?"

Looking out towards the distance, the group saw that it was indeed their home village out in the distance. Yet when they looked closer, they could see that standing near the front gates was Obito and Rin as if they were waiting for them to arrive. What was strange about that was that no one had told them that they were coming back that day. Sure the ANBU had picked up all of their prisoners, Gatou included, but they did not know that they were coming back as of yet. They did not tell the special opts team how long they would be. Therefore, how they knew that they were returning today was unknown to them.

Upon seeing his older students waiting for them, Arashi knew that not only was he going to have to run, but if he did not the two would yell his ear off for making them do all his work while he was gone. Hoping that they would not notice him or they would be preoccupied with talking to the others, the Yondaime slowed his pace down and let the others go ahead of him. So now, it was Kakashi in the lead with Sakura right behind him and Sasuke behind her. Naruto was walking next to Sasuke, Kyuubi on his shoulder, and Zabuza walking right behind the two boys with him bring up the rear.

Upon seeing his rival, Obito waited for Kakashi -who seemed to be quite ahead of the group for some reason, which could only be that he wanted to see his dolphin- to almost be right in front of him before he did anything. Therefore, when he was close enough, Obito asked him the first thing that he could think of. "Anything interesting happen on the mission?"

'Did anything interesting happen during the mission. Well let us see, Naruto was almost killed by the Demon Brother, we fought two of the Seven Swordsmen of Mist, killed the shark-faced swordsman, and found out that the Demon of the Mist is Naruto's uncle and my long lost older brother. Oh and then Sasuke somehow activated not only his sharingan but also the ultimate form of the sharingan, the Mangekyou Sharingan. Found out that not only did Naruto watch his grandmother died, but was also tortured and sold into slavery by the murderer, AND Naruto has a summonings contracted with Tenshi, him being the only one able to summon the Tenshi other than Kami-sama himself. Was there anything interesting that happened on the mission?' Kakashi thought in his head before answering aloud. "No."

With that, Kakashi greeted Rin nicely before walking into the village to go find his little dolphin and try to get him to go out on a date with him. Obito watching his back until it disappeared before shaking his head. He knew it. The mission was like any other regular C-ranked mission. Nothing exciting had happened while the rest of Team 7 was away. Though it was probably a lot more interesting than filling out paperwork and listening to the elders complain and complain the elders did. A whole of a hell of a lot of complaining.

Turning back to face the rest of the group, Obito blinked two times before screaming and falling backwards. Landing on his rear, the older Uchiha looked back up at the person that had been not two inches away from his face before hand to make sure he was not seeing thinks. Sadly, he was not, for there standing in the same spot was an A-ranked nukenin that was notorious for his large sword and swordsmanship skills. Standing in front of him was the Demon of the Mist, Momochi Zabuza. Though he did not look like he was going to be killing anyone anytime soon, actually he had one of Kakashi's smiles on his face, wear his eye were upturned as the only indication of him smiling because of the mask covering his face.

"Hello," Zabuza said happily offering a him a hand to help pull him up off the group.

Hesitantly, Obito looked at the hand before taking it. "Hello?" the older Uchiha asked not sure what he should of said and blushed because of his embarrassment.

Pulling the shorter man up with such strength that he crashed into his chest, but the two did not fall, Zabuza leaned down and spoke so softly into Obito's ear so that only he could hear. "You're cute."

Feeling the Demon let him go and take a few steps away from him, Obito dared not look up, knowing fully well that if he did the blush on his cheeks would most definitely be seen. This did not go unnoticed by Zabuza and the Demon just grinned looking at the other man. It also did not go unnoticed by the two blonds, both of which were happy for their own reason. Arashi because ever since the Uchiha Massacre, Obito had not had any relationships at all and was always doing important things like going on missions and taking care of Sasuke, even though he was always late for everything. Nevertheless, Arashi knew that it would be good for him and Naruto's reasoning was almost the exact same for his uncle. Seeing that they were always traveling, trying not to be found, and never had time for a relationship. Naruto just hoped it would work out between them.

"Arashi-sensei, why is the Demon of the Mist with you guys?" Rin asked when the rest of the group had arrived and seeing as Obito was currently off in his own world, she thought that she would ask.

"He's going to become a shinobi of Konoha so welcoming Zabuza warmly. And Zabuza these are Kakashi's teammates, Rin and Uchiha Obito," Arashi introducing the three with a big grin on his face before blinking a few times as if he was remembering something and turned towards the Demon. "Which reminds me, what name do you want me to put down on the legal papers? Momochi Zabuza or Hatake Zabuza?"

"Um, it is nice to meet you and everything Zabuza-san, but what's this about using Hatake as your last name?" Rin asked, confused why her sensei suggested the Demon use Kakashi's family name.

"Hatake," Zabuza answered the blond first before greeting Rin and answering her question. "And it's a pleasure to meet you too, Rin-san, and Hatake is my original last name, Momochi was my mother's maiden name."

"Oh, I see. Any relationship to Kakashi then?" the woman asked out of pure interested, since no one else she knew of had Hatake as a family name other than her teammate. It was as if he was the last of the Hatakes.

"He's Kakashi-sensei's older brother," Naruto answered for his uncle.

"_Brother?!_" Obito exclaimed finally getting over his blushing.

"Yep, isn't that right Oji-san?"

* * *

The rest of the day that Team 7 returned, Arashi spent it registering Hatake Zabuza as a member of Konoha, catching up with what had gone on in the village since he had been gone, and listening to the elders complain, again. However, Arashi did not know when the elders were not complaining. However, the Yondaime's highlight of the whole day was when he had to explain to Obito that Zabuza was both Kakashi's brother and Naruto's uncle and no Kakashi was not related to Naruto. Zabuza was Kakashi's brother by blood and Uzumaki Hoshi adopted Naruto's uncle in name since the Demon. And yes, he was sure about everything. 

However, now after his tiring day, Arashi was finally able to relax a little bit. It was now near nightfall and everyone else had all long since gone to their own house leaving the blond haired man alone. Nevertheless, when he was leaving the Hokage Tower, the Yondaime ran into the Sandaime who invited him to his house for a cup of tea. Taking up the offer, the two Hokages walked towards the Sarutobi clan's compound. Along the way the villager greet the two warmly and gave them the highest form of respect. Once they reached the compound, Konohamaru greeted both his grandfather and Arashi at the door, flinging himself on to his grandfather's legs.

Chucking, Sarutobi greet his grandson before sending him off to play so they could have their tea in peace. Doing what his grandfather told him to do, Konohamaru left them, after swearing that he would defeat the Sandaime someday, leaving the two Hokages alone once again. Going to the study, both men sat down at a small table set up for them, tea and cups already for them on the table, and relaxed. Sarutobi poured each of them a cup of tea with steady hands before they began their usually conversation. Usually when they talked, they tried to leave out their lives as shinobi and talked about other things, trying to be as normal as possible. That did not mean they did not talk about their students or other ninjas, it just meant that they talk about their lives as ninjas and talked about them as if they were ordinary people.

Therefore, it was unusual that they somehow got on to the topic of Team 7's mission in Wave. Yet the Sandaime was very interested in their mission, since it involved his dead teammate's adopted family. Yet never once did Sarutobi tell Arashi that Naruto was just Hoshi's adopted grandson for the sole reason of that he thought the man already knew. Nevertheless, the third listened diligently to the blond Hokage's story about their mission. A lot of the stuff truly baffled him, like how Sasuke had awakened the ultimate form of the sharingan without killing his best friend. While other parts he was quite captivated by, like the fact that Zabuza was the adopted son that Hoshi always praised about but never told him his name. Then there were the parts that he was enraged by, like the parts about of Hoshi's killer and what he had done to Naruto and his brothers, he assumed since they were never brought up at all.

Not once did Sarutobi interrupt Arashi's story once. He let the man tell the whole story the way he wanted to, before asking questions. That way the blond would not forget anything he was going to say when he had to spot and answer the third's question. When he was given the chance, the Sandaime asked all the questions he had acquired over the time the Yondaime was telling his story. Arashi answered each question to the best of his ability and if he did not know, he told the third so instead of making it up.

Sarutobi's last question was not really a question, but more of a statement. "I think that Naruto-kun is hiding something, don't you? And judging by what you've told me, I think he's hiding his true abilities."

"Why do you say that?" Arashi asked, wondering how the old man got to his conclusion.

"Think about it," Sarutobi said, taking a sip of his tea, "Naruto has always been a hyperactive child and is the dobe of his year. However, he notices things that no one else notices. He's more precise than any other child his age is. If you just watch him, you'd see what I mean."

Drinking the last of his tea, the blond haired man looked at the other with a confused expression on his face. "So what should I do?"

"Watch him, use training as an excuse to give you an opportunity to watch him," a voice said coming from the window. Turning towards the window, the two Hokages saw a man with long spiky white hair standing next to an open window that was not opened before. The man was wearing the most outrageous clothing and face paint that one would not know that he was a very powerful man. Yet his one of a kind hitai-ate with the kanji for oil on it gave the him away for who he really was, the Toad Sannin.

"Jiraiya-sensei," the Yondaime greeted his former sensei.

"Jiraiya, what are you doing here?" the Sandaime asked, greeting his former student.

"And if you say researching, I'm going to personally kick you out of the village," Arashi growled out, glaring at the man with all he was worth, after all he was the author of Arashi's most hated books, Icha Icha Paradise.

"Then I won't," the man said, grinning like a pervert, which only earned a glare for the blond haired man. His grin soon disappeared to be replaced by a serious expression. "Arashi tell me more about this student of yours, Naruto's, behavior." Complying with his sensei, Arashi told the man about Naruto's behavior and how the blond always seemed to surprise him when he did not think he could be surprised anymore. Thinking over what the fourth said, Jiraiya came up with one option. "Arashi. You, this Naruto, and I are going to train together tomorrow. I want to see this boy for myself."

"Alright," the Yellow Flash said, not really sure of what else to do other than agree with his sensei.

* * *

Waking up earlier than usually, Sakura headed to training field six after she finished eating her breakfast. Taking the short route, the pink haired girl cut through the market place and watched the venders set up their shops for the day. Some of the venders were whistling a happy tune whilst others were just smiling and going about their work. Most, if not all, of the venders that saw her greeted her warmly and some even wished her a good day. Smiling and greeting them back, Sakura continued on her way until she reached one shop in particular. Stopping outside of the shop, the girl peered in and watched as her once long time friend was busy getting ready for the day, smiling happily and talking with her mother. 

However, Sakura doubted that her ex-best friend had seen what she had during her mission, or else she would not be smiling like she was. The mission that she had been on had cleared up a lot for her about what being a shinobi was really about and it opened her eyes to the world. Being a shinobi was not fun and game, but death and chaos. There was not room for errors in her line of work and if she did make a mistake, it would most likely cause her life. That is why, beginning now, Sakura was going to take her career of being a shinobi seriously.

A hand was laid on her should, causing the pink haired girl to turn her head towards the owner of the hand. Her emerald green eyes meet with calm reassuring honey brown colored ones.

"You ready?" Rin asked, referring to their scheduled training that the two had planned yesterday.

"Yea," the genin replied, "but I thought that I was going to meet you there?"

"Well, I decided to come to the market to get us some lunch for latter on," the Jounin said holding up a small sack lunch. "Come on, day's wasting away."

Nodding her head, the cherry blossom followed her sensei to the training field, leaving her ex-best friend behind. Her thoughts from before still in her brain but pushed more towards the back taken other by other thoughts. These thoughts being a little bit happier than the last. Sakura's new thought were about what Rin had told her when she had brought up her worries about the mission she had been on. The thoughts on her shinobi lifestyle. Rin told her that even though their lives were dangerous and did not have room for any mistakes that, it did not mean that they could not have fun like any other human. They just had to know when they could be their regular selves and when they had to be their shinobi selves. Something that made perfect since to Sakura.

"Hey, Rin?" Sakura asked, looking up at the woman.

"Yea?" Rin mumbled.

"I want to become a med-nin like you. That way I can make sure that shinobi's live longer and don't have to worry about them getting injured and dying from it," the girl explained. "What do you think?"

Looking down at the girl that was beaming up at her while looking for accepts at the same. Smiling back, the woman answered her. "I think it's a wonderful smile."

* * *

In the main house of the Uchiha compound, Obito was busying himself, trying to sort out everything he learned the other day. He did not even go to sleep the night before since his mind was so active and would not give it a rest. He could not believe what he had learned and he did not think Arashi told him everything either. His sensei had told him that they had run into so trouble along the way and found out that the simple mission went from a C-ranked mission to an A-ranked mission when they were ambushed by two mist ninjas to a high class S-ranked mission when the they ran into the nukenin Hoshigaki Kisame. That was not even the half of it, it just seem that whole mission deteriorated to him. 

Yet the whole part of Zabuza being Kakashi's brother and Naruto's uncle was something that was still overwhelming to him, but not as much as his little cousin obtaining the Mangekyou Sharingan was. It went against every known hypothesis the Uchiha clan had come up with about obtaining the highest known level of the Sharingan. It just did not make sense to him, but there was something else that did not make sense to him. If Zabuza was the Uzumakis adopted uncle, than why did he leave them all alone to fend for themselves here in the village? Why did the seemingly abandon the three boys? He had a few theories, one of them was that it was because the Demon did not what them to get harm, him being a nukenin and all, but the Uchiha had no way of confirming his theory either.

Turning around, Obito was startled enough to, yet again, fall on his ass.

"Yo," Zabuza said from the windowsill that he was currently perched on the outside of.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Obito all but yelled at the man, his eyes wide wondering why he had not sensed the guy was even there before. He was a Jounin for Kami-sama's sake!

"I came to train the brat," the Demon said with what appeared to be a smile on his face judging by the way that both his eyes were upturned.

Blinking a few times, the elder Uchiha tried to figure out what the other man was talking about until he remembered Sasuke telling him something about Zabuza training him while they were away on his mission in swordsmanship. "Sasuke's not up yet," Obito informed his guest, picking himself up off the floor, "but if you'd like to wait a few minutes he'll be up and about. He usually gets up about this time and eats breakfast, if you'd like you can join us."

Not even thinking about it, Zabuza accepted the other man's proposal of eating breakfast with the Uchihas. He answered so quickly and with such a delighted look on his face that Obito blushed at his eagerness. Obito just was not sure what to do. He could tell that Zabuza was flirting with him and had a genuine interest in him, but that was not it. It was just that he was the one usually trying to court the unwilling, not the other way around and it confused him a bit. He was not sure what was expected of him in this situation.

Fighting down his blush, Obito lead the Demon to the kitchen, trying to make small talk along the way. "So- why aren't you with your nephews?"

"Both Gaara and Haku are away on a mission; they weren't there when Naruto, Kyuubi, and I arrived home last night. As for Naruto and Kyuubi, their out causing my brother big problems," Zabuza said the last part with a little laugh, which not only made the Uchiha curious about the laugh, but it also caused the other to blush, which he seemed to be doing a lot lately. To him, the laugh sounded rich and full of glee, not anything like he would have expected coming out of the man before him. Thankfully, his blush went unnoticed this time, yet his curiosity did not and Zabuza, not one to give up the chance at making his little brother's life miserable, elaborated on what he had meant. "Apparently, my little brother has a crush on Naruto's old sensei, Iruka I think his name was, and while on our way here, we ran into said sensei, who Naruto promptly introduced me to, and Kakashi.

"Iruka seemed surprised that I was Naruto's uncle, but got over it quickly, and invited us to breakfast with Kakashi and him, since Kakashi just so happened to run into Iruka on his way to get breakfast and decided to join him. Seeing the murderous look that was directed at me by my own _loving _brother and I figured out what was going on and declined much to his pleasure and Iruka's disappointment on not being able to be with Naruto. Yet me being who I am, I did not stop there and told Iruka that if he wanted Naruto to join him he could, I just had other plans. This brightened Iruka's mood and caused my brother to glare murderous intent at me. It would seem he wanted alone time with Iruka, but he's not getting it anytime soon."

Not being able to help himself, Obito snorted trying to keep from laughing at Kakashi's predicament. "Oh boy, now I wish I was there to see. Kakashi most have been glaring daggers at you."

Throughout their whole conversation, Obito had been preparing breakfast and made a simple Western style breakfast with eggs, toast, and bacon. It just happened that when Zabuza was finished explaining why he was not with his nephews that the Uchiha had finished cooking. Setting three plates packed full of food, the two Jounin started to eat breakfast, continuing to talking with each other. They were halfway through with their food when Sasuke finally came downstairs to join them for breakfast. However, the boy had a little shock at seeing Zabuza sitting at his kitchen table eating breakfast with his cousin in a really friendly matter.

"What are you doing here?" Sasuke asked Zabuza, hiding his shock and asked his question with a flat emotionless voice.

"Training," the Demon said taking a bite out of his toast, "and just because we're not in Wave Country doesn't mean that your training is done. You have a lot of work to be done with that katana of yours if you want to even consider using it properly in battle. Moreover, I intend to make sure you're ready to use that katana properly in the up coming Chunnin Exams. Meaning we're going to be training from sunup to sundown. Starting now. "

* * *

Naruto and Kyuubi had been having a good day so far, even though he hadn't got any new clothing so he still had to wear his orange jumpsuit pants and a black shirt, the blond was in a good mood. He was going to go visit Obito and Sasuke with his uncle, but along the way they had ran into Iruka and Kakashi going out to for breakfast and Iruka had invited them along the way. However, since Zabuza had other engagements, he had told them he could not go, but Naruto and Kyuubi could go with them, which made both the foxes really happy. With that, the Demon parted ways with them and they went to breakfast. Yet, as they walked through the village, Kakashi finally got to see first hand how the villagers treated the blond boy and his fox and judging by Iruka's reaction, he had already seen it all before. 

As the three, four if you included Kyuubi, walked through the center of the village, Kakashi saw all the glares thrown at the genin and his fox. He also heard the whisperings of the villagers calling him a demon and saying things along the lines that both shinobi had been brainwashed by the demon. It made his blood boil just thinking of how the villagers treated Naruto, but it made everything a whole lot clearer, and made him all the more angry, when he saw it in person. The scarecrow would have yelled at the idiotic villagers, but the way that Naruto seemed to walk as close as possible between him and Iruka keep him from doing so.

Finally, the group reached the restaurant they were going to eat at, Kakashi was surprised at where they were. Ichiraku Ramen Bar. It surprised the scarecrow even more when Naruto, who had stuck to his side like glue and was tense, instantly became relaxed and ran over to the bar before jumping up onto one of the stools. Kyuubi jumping up onto the stool right next to him and sitting down right there as if waiting to order like a human would. The owner of the ramen stand and his daughter did not even seem to mind the boy or the fox, they actually looked happy to see him.

"Hello, Naruto-kun, Kyuubi-kun," the server, Ayame, greeted the boy smiling, "how are you?"

"I'm fine, how about you Ayame-chan?" Naruto asked as Iruka sat next to him and Kyuubi gave up his seat to let Kakashi sit there while the fox bounced into the blond's lap.

"I'm fine, so what can I get you guys today?" Ayame asked her customers smiling when the little boy looking like he thinking really hard about what he was wanted. He had such a cute look on his face when he did so, she just could not help to squeal mentally at the picture he made.

"I'll have a bowl of Miso ramen please," Iruka ordered, "how about you, Kakashi?"

"I'll have a bowl of Chicken ramen please," the scarecrow ordered from the woman.

"And you Naruto?" Ayame said looking back at Naruto who was now smiling back at her having decided.

"The usual please," Naruto ordered as Kyuubi yelped his agreement from the blond boy's lap. Smiling, Ayame knew exactly what the boy wanted even before she had even received his order; after all, he ordered it every time he came. Actually, he and his brothers were the only ones that order it since it was created especially for them. They called the special dish the Spiral Bowl after the Uzumakis. It was made up of different seafood, meats, and vegetables with rice underneath it. There were some spices in it but nothing else. In other words, the Spiral Bowl was made up of only healthy foods, because the three boys usually did not have enough to eat and when Teuchi, the owner found out, he and Ayame made the Spiral Bowl to make sure the boys ate enough food and were healthy.

"Coming right up," the waitress said cheerfully and she was not lying. For when just a few seconds later Ayame set a bowl in front of each of them and they all began to eat. The rest of the time, they sent eating their breakfasts, Naruto sharing his with Kyuubi, and talking about this and that. It was around the time that they were just finishing their breakfast when a small little frog with a scroll in its mouth hoped into the ramen bar. Delivering a scroll to Kakashi before poofing away. Looking curiously at the scroll in his hands, the scarecrow unrolled it and read it before handing it to Naruto telling him it was for him.

Looking confused, Naruto took the scroll and read it himself. After he finished reading it, the boy jumped up off the stool and turned towards his two sensei, well one sensei and one former sensei, and bowed respectfully. "Thank you for the breakfast Iruka-sensei, but I've got to go. Arashi-sama asked me to meet him at training field two in a few minutes and I have to go."

Smiling at the blond's politeness, Iruka nodded his head in understanding. "It's alright Naruto, I understand. Go have a good time."

"I will Iruka-sensei, bye," Naruto replied, but he did not leave. Instead he turned to Kakashi. "Oh and Kakashi-sensei, you should tell Iruka-sensei you like him, cause I know he likes you too."

Before Kakashi could even reply, or get over his shock that Naruto had figure out the he had a crush on Iruka, Naruto was already gone Kyuubi following right behind him. Turning towards the just as shocked, if not a little flustered and flushed, chunnin teacher, the scarecrow had to ask.

"You want to go out on a date with me?"

* * *

Naruto was confused. Actually, Naruto and Kyuubi were beyond confused. Both were wondering why Arashi had told them to meet him here when he was not there when he said he would be. It just was not like the man that they had come to know really well over their time together as a team. The man was always reliable when it came to doing what he said he was going to do. It just did not make sense to him as to why his blond hair sensei was not in the training grounds as he said he would be, but off towards the right were the woman's bathhouse was. Shrugging his shoulders while looking at Kyuubi in confusion, Naruto and the kittling headed towards the bathhouse following the pull of the older blond haired man's aura. 

At the bathhouse, Arashi was leaning up against the side of the building, arms folded and a frown on his face. Next to him stood, his sensei crouched down, leering through a hole in the wall while giggling and writing down a small little notepad. Arashi really did not approve of his sensei's behavior at the moment but decided to let it slide just this once because the pervert was helping him with his blond haired enigma of a student. However, with the way that Jiraiya was acting, the Yondaime was seriously thinking of forgetting about his sensei's help and turn all the women in the bathhouse on him.

"Jiraiya, we were supposed to meet Naruto a few minutes ago," Arashi, reminded his sensei, his right eyebrow twitching in annoyance at the silver haired man. Yet what annoyed him even more was that Jiraiya did not give him any acknowledgement that he had heard what the blond had just said. Growling lightly, the Yellow Flash pushed himself off the wall and within a blink of an eye, Arashi had brought his fist down on top of the Sannin's head. Trying not to yelp in pain to give away that he was looking at the naked woman, Jiraiya rounded on his student.

"Why'd you go and do that?" the pervert whined, rubbing his throbbing head.

"If you were paying attention than you would have heard me say that we were supposed to meet Naruto a few minutes ago and now we are even later than before because of your pervert behavior," the blond haired man grounded out.

"Hmm? What was that?" Jiraiya asked, since he had not been paying attention again and had gone back to looking into the bathhouse once his head stopped throbbing in pain. Turning his head to look at his student for a brief second before looking back through his peeping hole before slowly turning his head back towards his student. Or at least where his student once stood, but did not anymore. Instead, a group of women all wrapped up in towels stood there, arms folded over their chests, glaring daggers at the old man. Looking back through his peeping hole, Jiraiya made sure he was not seeing things and sure enough, there were not any women taking a bath anymore. "Oh, shit."

A little ways away from the bathhouse, Arashi was walking calmly towards training field two going to meet his student that he had neglected on the account of his perverted sensei. He had finally been feed up with him and left to go meet Naruto. He was almost there when a blood-curling scream came from behind him causing the birds in the vicinity to fly away in fright. The Hokage was about to turn towards the direction when he felt a tug at his side and looked down to see Naruto, with Kyuubi on his shoulder, standing there smiling up at him.

"Hi, Arashi-sama," Naruto said more cheerfully than he had ever hear the boy before, almost like the blond boy was really proud of himself for doing something. "I came like you asked me too."

"Hello Naruto, you seem happier than usual. Any special reason?" Arashi asked, voicing his opinion.

"Just help some women out and was thanked considerably for it," the boy told him his smiling widening even more.

"Being a good shinobi then I see," the Yellow Flash said with a smile as they finally reached training ground two. "Sorry I took so long in getting here, I got caught up with someone. Actually, he is supposed to meet us here in a little bit. He's going to help me with training you. Though he was kind of…sidetracked on our way here and should meet up with us in a little bit," Arashi explained to the boy, who nodded his head in understanding.

Hesitating for a second before he decided it was okay to ask, Naruto asked his sensei for some help. "Since we're going to be waiting, can I ask you to look over this new seal design with me? I just can't seem to get it right."

Nodding his head, Arashi agreed quickly wanting to see some more of the boy's seals and a bit curious on why he could not finish this one seal. The two sat under a near by tree and the blond genin pulled out a scroll. Laying it out in front of them, the boy unrolled it before showing it to Arashi. Together the two worked on the scroll, trying a few different designs for the same seal, but they could not get it to work. After a few more tries, Arashi found out what was causing all the failures and took the flaw out while at the same time Naruto added a rune in the center. Looking it over, the two blonds agreed that the seal was finished and ready to be tested out. That was how Jiraiya found the two when he came into the clearing, his body swollen and bruised by the women that had beaten him up for peeping at them. Apparently some of the women he had been spying on where ninjas as well.

Seeing that his sensei had finally decided to show up, Arashi diverted Naruto's attention from the seal they had just completed to introduce the boy to Jiraiya. "It would seem, Naruto, that the person that's going to help you train, just arrived. Therefore, before he runs off again, Naruto I would like to introduce you to my sensei. One of the Legendary Three, the Toad Sannin-"

"_Ero-sennin!_" the Pure One exclaimed upon seeing Jiraiya and pointing straight at him.

Upon hearing Naruto's reaction, the other two grown men could not help but gawk at the boy. Jiraiya could not believe what the boy had just called him; it was an insult to his pride. No one dared to call him such names. All respected him. He was a Legendary Sannin, yet this boy did not seem to care. Arashi could not believe it either, the boy was usually so respectful and he could believe what he had just done. However, once it finally sank in, the Hokage laughed. He laughed long and hard.

"Oh my, he- he just called you Ero-sennin," the Yellow Flashed laughed pointing at his sensei.

"But he is!" Naruto yelled trying to justify his actions, even though he did not have to since Arashi knew fully well that the pervert was. It was just too funny not to laugh.

"My name's not Ero-sennin, it is Jiraiya. Don't you have any respect? I am the one that's going to be training you after all," Jiraiya told the boy shooting his student a dirty look since he was laughing at him. Though the boy did not seem impressed at all, he just huffed and looked away from him muttering something under his breath. "You don't seem to believe me, do you?"

"No."

It was a simple reply but it sure caused the Sannin's pride to be damaged greatly. Puffing out his chest, Jiraiya growled before going through a set of hand seals to show the boy that he was not someone to be messed with. To do so, the silver haired man did the only jutsu that he knew would impress such a young shinobi. He performed the summoning jutsu. Though out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Arashi had stopped laughing and was trying to say something, but it was too late. A poof of smoke appeared and when the smoke disappeared, Jiraiya stood standing on a big toad. However, Naruto did not seem to be that impressed like other genin he had showed the same technique, but he was still slightly impressed. What the boy said next totally blew his mind.

"I can do something like that. Watch," the boy said happily and before Arashi could stop him, he went through his version of the summoning jutsu and one of his summonings appeared.

"You called Naruto-chan?" the Tenshi asked, folding up her wings behind her.

"Hi, Yumiko-san, I was showing him that I knew how to summon too," Naruto explained pointing towards Jiraiya, who was standing there gawking at the angel that the boy just summoned. His toad that he even summoned disappeared in a poof of smoke, causing him to fall on his ass. He could not believe what his eyes were telling him. A real life angel stood in front of him just summoned by a little boy that was not even half his size. Seeing how his sensei looked now, Arashi could not help to burst out laughing once again, causing Jiraiya's attention to turn towards him.

"You knew about this?" the pervert asked very surprised. Upon seeing the other man's head nod since he could not speak from laughing so much, Jiraiya growled. "Why didn't you tell me then?"

"The first time was because you didn't ask, but I did try to warn you just a few seconds ago. You just didn't give me time to explain it all to you," was the only thing Arashi could get out before he started laughing even more than before.

While they were talking, Naruto said good-bye to his angel friend before she left. Turning towards the others, the blond tried to get the pervert's attention, but he would not listen to him. Therefore, he did the only thing he could think of to get his attention and it got his attention immediately. "Ero-sennin!"

"Would you stop calling me that? Why don't you have any respect for who I am? I am the Legendary Super Pervert Jirai-" yet before the silver haired man finished his introduction, a pebble no bigger than his own fingernail, hit him on the side of his face with such force that it sent him flying into a near by tree. The laughter coming for the Hokage stopped and was replaced by seriousness and authority when he saw who it was that had thrown the rock. Naruto and Kyuubi just stood by Arashi, looking at the crater in the tree that was caused by the pervert's body. As for the pervert, Jiraiya was about to yell at the person that had dared did that, but stopped before he even started when he saw who it was.

"Dobe."

"Oh, crap," Jiraiya whispered out after hearing the way the word was spoken. Apparently, he forgot that there was one person that dared to call him such names that he did not dare mess with or he would not live to tell about it. There in front of him stood two young women, one of which was the one who had thrown the stone at him. The other, a black haired woman with eyes of night that wore simple attire, stood besides her with a cheerful smile on her face. As for the one that thrown the rock, while she did not look to happy, since she was glaring in Jiraiya's direction with cold amber eyes. Her blonde hair, styled up in a pair of pigtails, swayed softly in the wind framing her face while her green coat with the kanji for kake on it billowed around her. "Tsunade."

"Tsunade-hime," Arashi said after the silence was broke as he bowed respectfully towards the legendary Slug Sannin and the woman that could mostly kick him from here to Cloud and back with only one kick. "Shizune."

Seeing as Jiraiya was currently cowering away from his old teammate and as much as he wanted to watch the pervert, Arashi thought that it was best to introduce his little blond genin student to the 'princess' of Konohagakure. However, before the Yellow Flash could get the chance, Naruto did one of the many things that made the boy so mysterious to him. Instead, he greeted the two women with a bright smile and cheerful voice.

"Obaa-chan! Auntie Shizune!" Naruto exclaimed from beside Arashi before catapulting himself at the blonde woman while Kyuubi did the same thing, only to Shizune. Tsunade easily caught the little boy in her arms whilst Kyuubi jumped up into Shizune's arms to receive a scratch behind the ears causing the kitsune to purr in content. "Whatcha doing here? Where have you been? I thought you were supposed to be traveling with Oji-san, but you were not since we meet up with him on our way to Nami no Kuni. But when I asked him where you were, Zabuza-ojisan said he split ways with you a year back. I hope you weren't drinking or gambling all your money away again. I missed both of you."

"We missed you too and I see you still have the necklace I gave you," Tsunade said, flicking her grandfather's necklace lightly while the blond just gave her a big grin.

"Obaa-chan?" Jiraiya asked in disbelief looking at the three people in front of him. As far as he knew, the big chest woman never was involved with anyone, so why was Naruto Tsunade obaa-chan? He just could not believe it at all, it was something he never thought would happen in a million years after all. Looking over at his unfazed student, the pervert could not believe that he did not hold a look of shock on his face. "Did you know about this?"

"No," Arashi said, simple watching Naruto chatter away happily with Tsunade and Shizune.

"Then why aren't you shocked like I am?" the pervert continued, wondering why his student was just standing there like this was an everyday thing with him, because it just _was not_.

"Because I've learned not to be surprised after the first few times when Naruto has done something like this," the Yellow Flash explained to his sensei. Turning away from the other man, the Hokage turned his attention towards the two women that were telling Naruto and Kyuubi about their travels without him and his brothers. "Mind telling why you are here, Tsunade-hime? Usually you don't set foot in Konoha unless it's absolutely necessary of you."

Looking up from the blond she had been talking to, Tsunade smiled at the young Hokage. "I'm surprised you didn't ask me how I was related to Naruto, I know for sure it was on that pervert's mind," the med-nin said setting Naruto on the ground and pointing towards her old teammate.

"Let's just say I know not to ask and just accept it till either you or Naruto decide to tell me," the blond said with a shrug, knowing fully well he would get his answer to what was going on eventually.

"I see, well I'll explain it to you later. As for the reason why I'm here, I'm going to help training Naruto and my other grandsons for the upcoming Chunnin Exams," Tsunade explained. "But for now, Naruto, you're training with those gravity seals is done with. It's time to take them off and adjust to what your body can and cannot do now. You should always know your limits and never push yourself over them if you can help it."

"Okay Obaa-chan," the blond said as he went through as set of hand seals before touching his glowing hands to his wrists and ankles, seals appeared before dissolving all together. After he was finished, Naruto smiled lightly before bouncing form foot to foot to get a feel for his body without the gravity seals he had been wearing. Once he seemed to get a feel for the adjustments done without the seals on his body, the Heir of Foxes smiled brightly before stomping on the ground with his right foot. A crater formed underneath his small foot that was of a descent size and an even bigger smile formed on the boy's face. It was because of this, that the boy did not see the astonished looks on both Arashi and Jiraiya's face and the pleased looks on both Shizune and Tsunade's faces.

Preparing himself, Naruto took off run at such speeds that it looked like he was a blur of yellow light. Speeds that looked so much like Arashi when he was running and even more so with the boy's blond hair. Naruto just ran for the pleasure of it, giggling every now and again when the wind whispering in the wind felt. It made him feel free and not liked a caged animal as he sometimes felt when he had to hide from the Destroyer. He was part fox and Tenshi after all and neither foxes nor Tenshi liked to be locked up and caged. Like this, running around, Naruto did not feel caged at all, but he felt free and alive. Something he loved feeling.

* * *

Thank you for all the reviews yet again. And I would like to ask something of you reader, you see, I really can't write fighting sence that well and I want to know your thoughts on how I did. I'm trying to get better at them and the only way I can is to know where I did good and where I can improve. Just don't be mean about it, please? 

**8/27/07 Edited**

I want to say thank you to **_kandra_** for pointing out a mistake to me and **_deadly-grace_** for the longest review I have ever gotten on this very chapter. I would also like to thank **_deadly-grace_** for translating the jutsu I made up into Japanese from the last chapter. I just got finished changing them in the last chapter, so go look! And thank you again **_deadly-grace_** for giving me the Japanese names.

Shi no Tenshi 902


	17. Preparations for the Chunnin Exams

Hello everyone! Guess what? It's time for another Questions that need to be Answered time! Also a little venting...

First of all, I would like to say to _**Miyaki Kurata**_, get a life! This is a fanfiction, it is supposed to be different than _**Naruto**_ and if you don't like the way I write, than you don't have to read it! (And that is all for my venting, now onwards to Q&A!)

_**pikxy**_: When will u reveal to both arashi and naruto that they're father and son?

_**Shi no Tenshi 902**_: Hopefully soon, but first I have to get a few things out of the way. I want to reveal he his the Yondaime's son at the end of the Chunnin Exams and as you can see, the Chunnin Exams have just gotten started.

**_kandra_**: Isn't it a bit odd that every relationship is turning out to be between men? Should there be a heterosexual couple somewhere in all the people around Naruto? I mean, Kakashi/Iruka, Naruto/Sasuke, and now Zabuza/Obito?

**_Shi no Tenshi 902_**: You know something, now that you mentioned it, I never noticed that before and I really didn't mean for that to happen. But rest assured, I am going to have other realtionships that aren't yaoi. I was thinking on, and trying to develope, a Lee/Sakura right now.

**_TheOtaku Akatsuki_**: Is Kyuubi ever going to have 9 tails again?

**_Shi no Tenshi 902_**: (Laughs nervously) Now if I went into details about that than I would ruin a few things, but I will tell you yes, Kyuubi will have nine tails again.

**_Shi no Tenshi 902_**: Now that's all the Q&A I'm going to do, because if I answer some of the other questions I will definitely be giving out spoilers for what I have in mind, so don't think I'm favoring anybody over anybody else. I would also like to thank everyone who wished me a Happy B-Day, I really thought that was nice of everyone that did and would also like to thank _**deadly-grace**_ for making me feel really good about my story, love your review. Thank you everyone that has been nice to me and hasn't flamed me. Now onward with the story!

* * *

__

Tsunade had been drinking and gambling at the casino in small town she had stumbled upon earlier in the day and unluckily for her, the Legendary Loser had been kicked out. Something she could not understand why. She did not even consider it was because she had no more money and the loan-shakers wouldn't give her any more loans. This being the one of the reasons why the woman was now unsteadily walking down the unfamiliar streets. The other reason she was unsteadily walking towards the hotel, which she and her subordinate were staying at, was because she was drunker than drunk.

However, along the way the blonde had decided to take a nap up against the wall, but was awoken by someone shaking her gently. Opening her eyes, Tsunade were met with the worried eyes of Shizune, who had come to find her after Tsunade didn't arrive back at the hotel after eleven. Grumbling, the blonde picked herself up off the ground, the woman stood up not so shakily as before, some of the drunkenness already wearing off.

"How long was I gone for this time?" Tsunade asked referring to how long she had been out gambling before the younger had come looking for her.

"Seven hours," Shizune replied with a frown on her face, but showing no other distain other than that. "We should get going and get a goodnight sleep so we can get and early start in the morning if we want to leave."

"Got it," the blonde agreed with her subordinate.

The two women began to make their way towards their hotel, which was near the entrance of the gates to the small town. When they were almost to the gates, the med-nins heard some sort of a commotion taking place. Thinking better of it and not wanting to get in the middle of what was going on, the two med-nins thought it best that they should go around and get to their hotel another way. Then again, it would take forever to get to the hotel that way. Hoping not to be seen and just get to their hotel without being caught within the commotion, the two continued on their way a little more warily.

However, that all changed when they were passing by the gates and saw the guards were cowering away but still trying to keep an infamous nukenin out of their village.

"You're not welcome here!" one of the guards said trying to sound brave and convincing, but the stuttering in his voice was not convincing at all.

"I just want to find a healer! That's all!" the man growled out, his arms clutching a small child, who was sweating profoundly, to his body. Behind him stood two other children, both of which were glaring at the guards for not letting them in to help out the boy in the nukenin's arm. Though what was interesting about the two boys was that ice was forming around the brunette's being and one could practically see the cold aura surrounding him. The other boy, a redhead, had sand was swirling around his being and a murderous glint in his eyes.

"He can die for all we care! If he's in your care that mean's he's just like you! A **Monster**!" one of the men yelled before yelping in pain. Looking towards the man's pain, Tsunade saw a little red kitsune that was biting the man hard. Though what caught her attention was the fact that for a split second the golden eyes flickered to red. A bloody red. Instantly she knew that the fox was anything but normal, yet her attention was drawn back to the missing-nin when the blond in his arms, who began to whimper in pain.

Not only were her med-nin instincts kicking in upon seeing the boy so sick and near death that seemed to be screaming to be healed, but also her maternal instincts as well. Knowing that it was the right thing to do, Tsunade walked purposely towards the group, a worried Shizune following. Passing the guards, the one still trying to get the kitsune to let go of him, the blonde haired woman walked right up to the nukenin without any worry about her own well being. The man and the other boys instantly tensed up, yet she did not take any notice. Her eyes were focused on the blond boy so near death.

Reaching out towards the boy, Tsunade used her own created jutsu to determine what was wrong with the boy. However, when her hand was barely a foot away from the boy's head, a white aura flared up around him and sent out a blast of pure raw chakra. The power not only pushed her and Shizune away, but also threw the unprepared guard back into a wall. Knocking them both unconscious, however, the little fox was not affected by the power and simple let go of the guard that his teeth were digging into when they were thrown. Although, the kitsune was not the only one left unharmed, the whole group that seemed to be with the blond boy were not affected at all.

In spite of the pure raw power that the boy released and the others not being harmed, it was Tsunade's next word that sent a shockwave through the two groups.

"Pure One…"

With those two words the whole other group tensed up even more, before their chakra seemed to flare out around each one of them as if to protect the blond from her. It was then she noticed that each of their chakras were off, not normal. The redhead's chakra was demonic, but not evil; threatening yes, evil no. The brunette's chakra was one of ice and something not mundane, but not a godly feeling either. Something like a demigod or their descendants. The fox, that was now standing protectively in front of the group growling and he was no longer small or ordinary with the two tails swaying around him aggressively. The chakra coming off the fox was demonic, even more so than the chakra coming off of the redhead, and Tsunade could definitely see that the fox's eyes did in fact change color to blood red. Lastly, the missing-nin holding the boy, had chakra that felt and could only be describe as death mixed in with normal human chakra.

All of them willing to fight if she dared hurt the boy. But she was not going to do anything to hurt the boy; on the contrary, she would do everything in her power to help him. After all, he was the world's only hope in defeating Quetzalcoatl's Chosen One. The man that not only killed his own divine relationship with a god, but hers too.

"I won't hurt him. I just want to heal him, as the goddess Philyra taught me to do," Tsunade said, knowing that if she mentioned her former deity it would catch their attention. "After all, I was Philyra's Chosen One, before her murder that is."

* * *

Waking up, Tsunade had to smile at her dream, actually it was a memory, but it was how she had met the Uzumakis. It was only until later that Shizune and her became apart of their family and it had been one of the happiest days of her life. She had finally got a family, one that she knew she could lose at any second like how her brother and fiancé had died, but she would be right beside them. She had promised herself that she would never leave their sides and always be there when she was needed. So far she had keep to her promise, since she would always come to check up on _her_ boys during the two years they had been living in Konoha, but she never could stay long. It had been an agreement with Shizune, Zabuza, and herself that they would leave the boys in one place where they could grow up and have a normal life while they lead the Destroyer on a wild goose chases, for lack of better words.

The only reason that she had come back to Konoha instead of keeping the Destroyer on her trail was because of the fact that she had felt her blond haired grandson's chakra all the way in Iwa Country where her and Shizune had been staying. It was then that she knew that something was up and head straight for Konoha to find out what had happened. She knew that if she felt Naruto's power than, there was no doubt about it that, the Destroyer had felt it as well or at least one of his followers felt it and reported it back to him. He would know where the power had come from within a matter of days and head off to find the Pure One. The Slug Sannin was just thankful that the blond had not released his power in Konoha, but Nami, since they could not find him that easily now.

"Obaa-chan, it's time to get up! You promised to take us to town today!" the shout of her hyperactive grandson penetrated not only Tsunade's door, but her thoughts as well.

Smiling slightly, the woman got up, knowing that the day was going to be on hell of a day. All three of her grandsons were taking the Chunnin Exams after all and it was time to buy them some new clothing. After all, it was not everyday your grandchildren were going to show off their real skill to the world and they needed to look like a real ninja anyways. "I am coming brat!"

* * *

"You ready to go?"

Looking up down from his perch in the tree, Sasuke looked to see that his cousin was standing next to the tree trunk, waiting for him to reply. Grunting, the younger Uchiha jumped from out of the tree and landing perfectly on the ground with very little noise. Standing up straight, he looked over at his cousin and smirked before handing back the shuriken that had been thrown at him back to its owner. Taking the shuriken from the genin, Obito smiled.

"Yea, you're ready," the jounin answered his own question, knowing for a fact that Sasuke was ready for the Chunnin Exams. The boy had been training nonstop for the last two weeks with the same routine. Zabuza would come over early in the morning, waking the boy up before having breakfast with the Uchihas. Then he would take the raven out and train him with his katana uninterrupted until lunch. Afterwards they would come back to the Uchiha compound and have lunch before Zabuza would disappear. It was then that Obito trained his cousin on his own, mainly focusing on the Sharingan, but stressed the importance of not relying solely on his bloodline limit. Occasionally, Kakashi would stop by to train the younger Uchiha too, but that was not often, since he had finally gotten together with his dolphin.

Then, after the Uchihas had their evening meal, the two wound retire to training their mind by reading things. Knowing that one should always have a balance between their physical capabilities and the mental capabilities. By the time they were finish with all their training and in bed it would be well into the night. Only for the whole cycle to start over again the next day. It was a wonder how they lived through the whole two weeks, but Obito made sure that they did. Thus, on the last day before the Chunnin Exam, the jounin insisted on them having a day of rest. Although he did not agree with it at first, Sasuke took his last free day off.

During that day, Sasuke had the time to think about other things than his training and wondered how his blond teammate was doing. He had not seen him the whole two weeks and what he had learned from his cousin -who had learned it from the his sensei when they talked one day while he was training with Zabuza- neither had anyone else. Apparently the blond was training, but nothing else was said. Obito did say that his sensei had an unusually smile on his face when he told him that the blond was training, but he did not understand it.

The Yondaime had been very mischievous that day. Of course it could have been because his old sensei was back in town and had been put into the hospital by some woman. Although, Obito had thought only Tsunade could do that kind of damage to the Toad Sannin, but she was not in Konoha, everyone knew that she would never return to Konohagakure willingly after what had happened to everyone she loved.

"Oh, Sasuke, before I forget, I've got some new cloths for you," Obito said, snapping out of his thoughts.

* * *

"You ready?" Rin asked the pink haired girl that was looking nervously around the front of the Academy. The girl looked towards her sensei and all the nervousness seemed to disappear. A calm smile formed on her lips and she nodded her head, a determined look in her eyes. Over the past few weeks, she had given up on chasing boys, mainly Sasuke, and did what her female teacher tried to do with her in the begin and became a devoted ninja. She knew she could use more training, a lot more, but the time of the exam came all too quickly for her.

For the last two weeks, the pink haired girl had trained with all of her sensei, but mainly Rin and the woman's best friend and a genjutsu expert, Kurenai. Together the two jounin women taught her all about medical jutsu and genjutsu. Sakura could now tell if she was surround by a jounin level genjutsu or lower and had a pretty vast list of genjutsu that she could do herself. Her medical skills were not as great as her genjutsu, but that was because all med-nin jutsu were very complicated and if one wrong move was made on the patient being worked on, the patient could be permanently scarred for life or even die.

With all her changes towards her training, Sakura also had her own appearance changed to fit her lifestyle. No longer did she wear her hair lose so that it might get in the way, but now it was held back in a tight braid. Rin had told her to get it cut short, but she could not part with her pink locks. Rin and Kurenai had taken her shopping and told the cherry blossom their advice on different outfits that would be good for a shinobi lifestyle. Together the girls picked out a red outfit that consisted of a red skirt that had chain-mail sewn into it and a red halter top, made the same way, to match. The pink weighted bandages that the Yondaime had given to her were wrapped from her ankle to her knees protecting them and a new pink shuriken holster was attached to her right leg while her hitai-ate was wrapped around her left leg parallel to the holster. And of course she was wearing shinobi red sandals.

"Yea, I'm ready," Sakura replied finally.

"Good," Rin said with her own smile, "I must be going now; the Chunnin Exams are to start in an half an hour's time and I have to help Arashi-sensei with things. I wish you luck, bye."

"Bye Rin," Sakura said watching her sensei walk away, before looking for her other teammates. As much as she trained and all, she did not like being surrounded by all these foreign ninjas alone. However, it confused her that she could not find either of her teammates. How hard was it to spot a blond in orange after all? Sure he only had his orange pants now, but still! It should not have been that hard to spot the boy. Everyone else was wearing dark or earth tone colors, some wore reds and purples, but nothing was bright like Naruto's orange pants.

Finally, Sakura spotted one of her teammates. However, unlike what she would have done before and flung herself at the raven, Sakura just walked calmly over to the Uchiha, who now sported new clothing like herself. The raven no longer wore his usually attire of shorts and turtle neck shirt. Instead he seemed to be wearing black skintight scale like clothing since the pink haired girl could not see under the black haoiri and matching hakama with a white sash. He still wore his regular shinobi style sandals, but his were newer looking than before and his hitai-ate was, just as before, wrapped around his forehead. His katana was secured on his back and it did not seem that the genin had any other weapons on him. Though knowing him, the emerald eyed girl knew that somewhere in his loosely fitted haoiri were all the weapons and survival aides he would need for at least two or three days.

"Sakura," Sasuke greeted.

"Sasuke," the cherry blossom greeted back and watched in mild amusement as the raven seemed shock that she did not add a -kun to the end of his name like she usually did. She had to give him credit, since it was not everyday that one of his fangirls stop fawning all over him. Although Sakura had to admit to herself that in the two weeks that she had not seen Sasuke that she had time to really think over her so called crush on Sasuke and found out that she really did not like the boy. Yes he was cute, but when she had declared that she had liked the boy to Ino all those years ago, she had only done it because that was who all the other girls her age liked and she wanted to fit in so badly. But to make a long story short, the pink haired girl gave up her false crush on Sasuke and decided that her shinobi career was what was important now and her love life would be put on hold. She was twelve after all.

Smirking a bit, Sasuke had to hide a grin liking the new change in personality from his female teammate. "You've changed a bit in the last two weeks."

"Call it a revelation on life if you will, but yea I've changed some. Rin had been teaching me a few tricks to get me ready for the Chunnin Exam," the pink haired girl explained happily. "You ready for the exams?"

"Hn, more than ready," the Uchiha said with a sadistic smirk on his face. However, his smirk soon went away when he realized everyone was moving inside.

Noticing the same thing, Sakura looked around as well before voicing her opinions. "Where is everybody going?"

"The examiners have called everyone who's taking the exam to come inside so they can get a head count," a random passerby told them, "you better get going and held on in if you want to participate in this years exam."

"But our whole team isn't here right now," Sakura protested, looking around for any signs of her blond haired teammate or his fox, but coming up empty handed.

"Neither is my team, but hopefully their already inside and we just didn't see them before they went in," the shinobi told her and added a reassuring smile to cheer her up a little bit.

"Maybe," the cherry blossom sighed before following the crowd.

As the girl walked, she made sure to keep out an open eye for her other teammate. Catching a glimpse of blond hair, Sakura was about to make a mad dash over towards the person thinking it was Naruto. Yet when the crowd parted for a split second she found out she was mistaken and the blond hair did not blond to her teammate, but a rather tall curvy blonde haired girl with four pigtails for a hair style. Sighing, the pink haired girl walked through the doors of the Academy, but had to stop when she notice that her other teammate was not following her.

Turing around, Sakura saw that Sasuke was standing in the same place as before and looked like he had not moved from his spot. The raven was looking out towards the village as if looking would summon the blond to their side. However, no matter how much either one of them seemed to plea for the blond's arrival, he never seemed to come. Making her way back towards the Uchiha, the cherry blossom lightly laid a hand on his should, but didn't pull back when he seemed to jerk to life and tense up. Swiftly he turned his head towards her, but he wasn't glaring like she thought he would. His eyes seemed to have an emotion that she couldn't quite place shining deep within them, but before she could truly place it, the emotion was gone and expressionless eyes were looking at her.

"Come on, Sasuke, Naruto might already be inside waiting for us," Sakura urged him on, but it even sounded false to her own ears. Yet she had faith in the blond and knew that he would not just blow this off, he wasn't the kind of person to do that kind of thing. But that still left only one question.

Where _was _Naruto?

* * *

A boy wearing green spandex with orange legwarmers and his hand wrapped in bandages was brutally knocked to the ground. A bruise seemed to form instantly on his cheek and his once neatly arranged bowl cut hair was disheveled. An already existing black eye looked over the boy's giant fuzzy eyebrows at his attacker, glaring. Nonetheless, no one seemed to be making any kind of movements to help the beaten boy up. They just stood in a semi-circle around the back of him, his attackers in the front of him smirking down at the boy.

"Is someone as talentless as you really think about taking the Chunnin Exams?" one of the boy's attackers mocked him while pointing at the Konoha hitai-ate used as a type of belt on their target.

"Why bother?" the guy's partner asked.

"You're all just a bunch of snotnose children playing ninja!" the first ninja, a spiky haired youth, insulted not just the boy but the whole group of genin standing around watching the fight go on between the two and the green spandex wearing kid.

"You said it!" the second male, black haired youth, said cracking up in laughter.

"Would you shut up already? You're annoying and I've got places to be, people to find, and other sorts of stuff. So if you don't mind, get out of my way," Sakura said walking up through the crowd with Sasuke a little ways behind her. To some of the shinobi around her that knew her looked on in awe at the girl's new attitude. Sure she was a little blunt and mean before, but she knew never to go against people she couldn't defeat. It was unlike her to be this blunt and around her crush too, it was unheard of!

Surprised at first about the girl's not afraid attitude towards them, the bullies were taken back at first and couldn't form words for the life of them. "Look here girly, we're trying to help you out, but sparing you from the pain of the Chunnin Exams are," the spiky haired boy finally said when he found his voice.

"He's right," his partnered agreed with him, finding his voice again also. "The Chunnin Exams are incredible difficult… we should know, we've failed three times already. We have seen it all. There's the people who made it, then immediately gave up on being a shinobi afterwards. Others end up crippled, some even reduced to vegetables and others…and others that die."

"Besides that, Chunnin are team commanders. They lead their teams and have to be responsible for whatever happens. They are responsible for failed missions and those who die under their command. It all rests firmly on their shoulders. We're simply trying to weed out the weak and save them from a horrible fate," the first bully spoke up again.

"And you punks think you have the right to do that?" the cherry blossom snorted. "Maybe it's you that shouldn't be in the exams. After all what kind of idiot to you take us all for? I mean come on, how obvious does this genjutsu have to be? No wonder you've failed this exam three times, if you think this illusion would fool anyone. Hell, even a villager with no shinobi training could see though it! And you call yourselves shinobi. HA!"

Now some of the other ninjas were really confused and murmurs began to spread throughout the room. What was she talking about? Weren't they already on the third floor? What was going on?

"So you figured that out, eh?" the black haired boy said smirking.

"It wasn't that hard," Sakura said with an open mouth smirk. "It's so obvious that we're still on the second floor."

"Hey…not bad, but just seeing through it is-" the spiky haired man growled out before disappearing from sight. Before he appeared above her in the air about ready to kick her in the face. "-_ENOUGH!_"

Before she could react herself, a green blur ran in the little space in front of her and caught the leg in midair. Not being able to defy the laws of gravity, the bully fell to the ground, but his leg was still being held up. So when he fell, the bully had to support his boy with his hands so that he wouldn't break or dislocate his own leg. Looking up over to his captor, the spiky haired boy could help but notice that it was the spandex wearing genin he had been beating up earlier that was now the one holding him captive.

"Whoa," Sakura gapped, not believing what her eyes were telling her. The boy before he was completely different than the boy that had been getting beaten up before and his speed! He was so fast! He had intercepted the attack from even happening when he had been all the way across the room. Now that was some real speed. She had seen faster, coming from the Yondaime, but the genin was still a kid and he was not using a jutsu to increase his speed either. It was purely his own training, hard work, and discipline that got him where he was.

Letting go of the boy, who fell flat on his face from his sudden unbalanced state, the green spandex boy turned to the cherry blossom to make sure she was in good health. "Are you alright?"

"Fine, but I could have taken care of it myself," the girl said turning away from her apparent savor and as if to prove her point about her earlier statement, she kicked the bully in the stomach. The spiky haired boy went flying into the nearest wall, forming an indent in the brick of where the boy's body hit. The others around the cherry blossom were all openly gaping at the girl's display of strength and she was silently praising herself. Since her chakra control was so good, Sakura could channel her chakra anywhere into her body at anytime, which she channeled into her leg and kicked the guy with.

"I thought that we agreed not to draw attention to ourselves? You're the one that insisted on it," a white eyed boy said walking up to the bowl haired boy. The other boy had long black hair with a purple tint to it and wore a cream color jacket. He did not look impressive at first glance, but many shinobi knew who the white eyed boy was. After all, it was the bloodline limit of the Hyuuga clan. The Hyuuga seemed like he was going to say something more. However, he did not get to, since the green spandex wearing boy was not listening to him anymore. Instead he was looking at Sakura with big lovey-dovey eyes.

"Hi, my name is Rock Lee," the boy said with a blush on his cheek. "You're Sakura aren't you?"

"Yea," the cherry blossom said with slight hesitation, feeling that she wasn't going to like where this was going.

"Would you like to go out with me?" Lee ask, remember that he heard about the girl before. He had not met the girl before, but he had seen her training once and was instantly taken by her. She was determined and a hard worker, something that he had not seen in many girls before. That was why he was so taken by her and was determined to make her his girl. So trying to win the cherry blossom over he went on, "I'll protect you with me life!"

"Thank you for the offer, but no," Sakura declined the spandex wearing boy. However, the girl couldn't help but notice that all of the boy's wounds were now gone. With that the girl turned around before walking away from him and going towards her teammate so that they might go to find their missing teammate.

"What?! But why?" the boy asked almost in tears.

"Because, my shinobi career is more important to me at the moment than anything else," the pink haired girl explained, turning towards Lee to talk to him face to face before turning around once again. So Sakura didn't see Lee's jaw drop and the hurtful expression on his face. Although before the bowl cut haired boy could try once again, the Hyuuga spoke up.

"Hey you, what's your name?" the Hyuuga asked, speaking to Sasuke.

Turning toward the Hyuuga, Sasuke didn't say anything, just grunted and walked off, headed towards the third floor. Sakura following behind him, though she was more polite and bid Lee and the Hyuuga goodbye. Both members of team seven looking for their lost teammate, hoping to find him before the Chunnin Exams started.

While all this was going on, no one saw the two bullies disappear into one of the many rooms. Hidden away from prying eyes, the two seemingly genin disappeared in a poof of smoke to be replaced by two jounin. However, the spiky haired man was covering his stomach as if he was in pain.

"Stop fooling around, she couldn't have hit you that hard," the dark haired man said.

"I'm not fooling around, that girl sure can kick hard," the spiky haired man growled out.

Snorting, the other man tried to hold in his laughter, but couldn't and ended up laughing anyways. "Haha, you not only got beat up by a girl, but a genin as well! Hahaha."

"Shut up!"

* * *

"Hey you with the scowl…wait up!" Lee called after the departing duo.

Hearing someone calling him, Sasuke stopped walking, causing Sakura to as well, and look toward the voice to see Lee running after them. "What is it?"

Stopping in front of the two, the bowl cut haired genin looked towards the Uchiha heir with a determined face. "You and me, here and now, want to fight?"

"You want to fight me here and now?" the raven asked, without any ounce of emotion in his voice, to make sure he wasn't hearing things.

"Yes," was the simple, but serious, reply. "My name is Rock Lee," the boy went on after a brief moment of silence. Nonetheless, it had Sasuke wondering why he was introducing himself again when he already knew the guy's name from when he introduced himself to Sakura. Yet his question was soon answered with Lee's next words. "Among sticklers, etiquette requires one to introduce oneself before asking the name of another, Uchiha Sasuke."

"Hn, so you already knew my name all along," the dark haired boy mumbled under his breath.

"I'm calling you out!! I want to test the effectiveness of my techniques on one of the last surviving members of your legendary clan," Lee continued on all serious until he looked over at Sakura and blushed. Never once did he seem to notice that both members of Team 7 were not really paying attention to him anymore, but the next part did catch the cherry blossom's notice. "Also, I want to prove my worth to Sakura-chan. She's such an angel."

"Look Lee, I'm not interested in boys at this point in my life," Sakura said with a sigh, hoping this time it would get through his thick head that she would not go out on a date with him.

"B-but-" Lee tried to speak, yet he could find the right words to do so. It was also at this time that Sasuke spoke up to Lee's challenge, cutting the boy off.

"So you're challenging me, even knowing my lineage?" Sasuke asked, a little curiosity in his voice.

"Absolutely!" Lee exclaimed falling into a fighting stance, with a grin on his face, ready for any sort of attack.

"I decline."

Poor Lee almost fell down from shock upon hearing his challenge being decline without any real reason. It was hard to believe, from what he had heard of the young Uchiha, the boy was always looking for a fight. But here the raven was declining his offer without any hesitation. It was as if he didn't think Lee was good enough to fight him. Something that really made the green wearing genin's blood boil. It was an indirect insult to his pride and he wasn't going to stand for it.

Without even thinking, Lee charged at the unprepared raven and threw a punch directed at his head. However, his punch never hit its target; instead it was caught by a man almost the exact replica of him. The only difference was the age and the jounin vest he wore.

"Idiot," the man growled out before he let go of his hand and punched the boy straight into a wall. Seeing the man send Lee flying with one solid punch, the two members of Team 7 didn't know what to think. Sure he had stop Lee's punch from hitting Sasuke, but did the boy really deserved to be hit so hard? He was only excited about the up coming Chunnin Exams and only seemed to be raring to fight; at least that was how it seemed to Sakura and Sasuke. The jounin must have been a really strict and up tight if he would hit Lee because of his eagerness to fight. "The exuberance of youth! All of you are full of it! But that does not give anyone the right to attack when their opponent is unprepared."

They took it back about the strictness and the guy being up tight, Sasuke and Sakura did not know what to think of this guy anymore. All they could come up with was that he was very, _very_, strange, to put it nicely.

"Sensei," Lee cried, literally, as he got back up from his spot on the ground like the punch was nothing. "I'm sorry sensei! I don't know what came over me, please forgive me."

"It's alright, Lee! Mistakes and youth go hand in hand," the jounin proclaimed, also crying, walking over to the boy and laying a hand on his shoulder, "but I can't let your attempt go unpunished. Your penalty will be to sweat by doing five hundred laps around Konoha after the Chunnin Exams."

"I understand!!" Lee exclaimed giving the jounin a salute.

During their whole conversation, the jounin and Lee seemed to both forget about the other people around them. So when their display of tears and strange sunset scenes were over, the jounin finally seemed to realize that there were over people around them. Turning around and looking straight at the other genin. The older Lee look alike seemed to recognize them, but not for whom they were, but who their sensei was. And it wasn't Arashi.

"So, you're Kakashi's students, a very promising bunch I must say," the man said as he studied them over, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"You know Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked a little surprised that such a strange man would know one of their sensei. Especially, Kakashi, since they didn't think their sensei would actually willingly hang out with the man. Obito they might have believed would hang out with the man, but since Obito never talked about him to Sasuke, the boy knew otherwise. Which left them with the question of who was the man and how did he know Kakashi?

"Do I know him?" the man seemingly asked himself out loud while giggling. It was then the man disappeared from before them. It took all of Sasuke's training not to draw his katana and whirl around to attack when he felt the air move behind him. Instead, the Uchiha tensed up, stiffening his muscles so they wouldn't react on instinct like how Zabuza had been trying, and succeeded, to do so during the two weeks of training they had together.

"I should say so! We are archrivals!" the man declared from behind them. "The score stands at fifty to forty-nine. I'm stronger than he is. After all, I am the Mighty Green Beast of Konohagakure, Maito Gai!"

"Nice to meet you Gai-san," Sakura said politely bowing in respected towards Gai once she turned around to look at him. Even though she might have thought of him as creepy and strange, Rin had taught her to always be kind and nice to people that she had just meet. It not only showed them that she was polite and gains their trust, but it also put up a façade that she was weaker than she really was. When the cherry blossom had asked why that was, Rin had told her that most shinobi from other countries became truly cocky and arrogant when they believed that they were strong and thrived on push others about. "But you'll have to excuse us for we were in search for our last teammate before Lee interrupted us."

"I see, while we won't hold you two up any longer," Gai said as he disappeared from behind them once again and reappeared next to his student.

Seeing that they were given the chance to get away without any fights occurring, the two genin made their way towards the examination room. Both hoping to find Naruto already there. But to be safe, they each keep an eye out for their teammate on their way there. Coming to another crowd of people, Sakura looked around and notice that they were indeed in front of the designated room they were to be in, yet they weren't going inside. Actually, they couldn't go inside, since there were two jounin in front of the room guarding it. One seemed to have a clipboard in his hands while the other one was taking names from the genin.

Once the jounin with the clipboard had a genin's name, he seemed to scan through his clipboard. If he found whatever he was looking for on the clipboard, the man would let the genin inside the room. However, if he didn't find what he was looking for, he refused to let them inside. Seeing that it seemed to be like a checkpoint of some kind, the two members of Team 7 waited their turn. Slowly the crowd moved on until they were finally at the front of the crowd. The two genin before them had just been refused and were complaining that they didn't understand why they couldn't go in when the jounin held up a hand to his ear and seemed to be listening to something. When he moved his hand away, Sakura caught sight of a mini earpiece.

"Alright you two may enter. Next!" the jounin told the two genin before letting them through, both having weird expressions on their faces since they had been refused and now were let in for no apparent reason. Seeing that it was their turn, Sasuke and Sakura took a step up toward the guy. He didn't even look down when he started asking them questions that were short and to the point. "Village? Team? Names?"

Knowing what he wanted, Sasuke answered the man. "Konohagakure no Sato, Team 7 of the Rookies. Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke."

Looking up, the man looked at the two with a raised eyebrow, but didn't say anything. Going back to his board, the man looked through it, trailing down his figure down the page. Flipping to the next page the guy went on looking, he was about to flip to the third page when he stopped and pointed to the very bottom of the second page. Looking back up with a slight grin, the man let them into the room. Heading in, the doors closed behind them, giving them the time to look around the room and what they saw, they couldn't believe. The whole entire room was almost jam-packed with shinobi and not just from Konoha, but all different shinobi from different countries.

If outside of the Academy looked bad with the amount of people there, than the inside looked atrocious. There were twice, if not three, times as many people in the room as there was outside. Colors clashed with one another, some mixing others fighting to be seen in the chaotic mess. However, it wasn't really reassuring to them that most of the occupants of the room were older than they were some even twice as old. Yet, the most unnerving thing of it all was that everybody was looking their way.

The sounds of the door opening and closing behind them reminded the two that they were standing in front of the door and made a move to get out of the way. It was after they were out of the way and away from the prying eyes that anything interesting really happened. Sasuke was tackled from behind and both Sakura and Sasuke would have attacked the person if they didn't see who it was.

It was not hard to recognize the girl. She had not changed much since either of them had last seen her. Her long wheat colored blonde hair was pulled up back into her trademark high pony tail. Her regular colored blue eyes glistened with happiness and naïve to them. Her clothing consisted of what it had always been, a purple outfit that showed off her maturing body and her hitai-ate was worn as a belt.

"Sasuke-kun," the blonde girl squealed from her position on the boy's back, "where've you been cutie? I could hardly wait! It's so exciting, seeing you again after all this time!"

"Ino-pig, get your hands off Sasuke," Sakura growled out upon seeing her rival. She was not really angry that Ino was all over Sasuke, but she did care that her teammate looked very uncomfortable. However, to the blonde haired girl it looked like cherry blossom was jealous of her.

"Hello to you, too, Sakura," Ino said, lowering himself down to the ground and looking smugly over at the pink haired girl. It was when Ino was on the ground again that she noticed both of the changes on Sasuke and Sakura. Looking them over, the girl had to wonder about Sasuke and Sakura's change in attire and there seemed to be another change to them that she could not place her finger on what was different about them. But before she could voice her opinion on these things, a shout got their attention. Turning towards the shout, they saw two boys making their way towards them.

The one that called them, the rather rambunctious one, had on a heavy coat with a black fur lining around the hood, sleeves, and bottom. His face had two red triangles under his dog like black eyes and an obnoxious fanged smile. Brown hair was seen from under the hood he worn and in his head was a little white puppy that looked happily around the room, wagging his tail. The second boy was rather quiet and indifferent like. He had a high coat collar that covered the lower part of his face and a pair of sunglasses covering his eyes. Dark brown hair stood out on light pale skin with the occasional bug crawling across the boy's skin.

"Hey! There you are!" the loud boy called out again, even though he was almost right beside him. "It looks like we are all here! So I guess that the whole Rookie Nine applied for this year's exams?"

"Shut up Kiba!" Ino yelled annoyed that he had interrupted her time with Sasuke. "No one wants to listen to your loud voice, right Sasuke-kun?"

"Hn," the raven grunted looking away from the girl and looked around the room, reminding the cherry blossom that they weren't all there like Kiba had stated.

"But we're not all here," Sakura told the group, "Naruto's not here."

"He's probably off with Chouji and Shikamaru lazing about," the blonde haired girl said waving off the whole situation like it was nothing. Thankfully, the other group seemed to give it a little more consideration than Ino had to their missing teammate.

"Now that you'd mention it, Hinata isn't here either, right Shino? Akamaru can't even find her scent anywhere within this crowd, but that's reasonable since there are so many different people within the room," Kiba stated looking around the room as if he was looking for his lost teammate.

"We haven't seen Hinata at all," the other boy, Shino, stated shortly and to the point. But that was the way Shino usually was, he usually keep to himself and only seemed to talk to his little bugs of his. He was not really a people person, the totally opposite of his teammate. It was ironic that the bug-boy and dog-boy were put on the same team and it was a miracle that they could even cooperate and work on a team with one another.

"I wonder where they are." Ino thoughtfully, finally giving a thought to where her teammates were and the other teams' teammates. As the girl thought about it, the blonde looked around the room for the missing members of the Rookie Nine, but didn't find any of them. Instead, her eyes landed on a gray haired boy with big round glasses over his black eyes walking their way. The guy didn't seem threatening at all, but something seemed off about him. Yet, she did not give the guy any extra thought when she saw the Konoha hitai-ate on his forehead. She did have to wonder why he was walking toward them though.

"Would you guys do us all a favor and just shut up?" the white haired boy asked, gaining the rest of the Rookie Nine's -the ones that were there- attention.

"What did you say?" Kiba shouted instantly jumping up ready to fight since he was feeling insulted by the guy. He would have done more damage to the man, if it had not been for the fact that his teammate had grabbed hold of his right arm in a vice like grip to restrain him.

"You're the would-be hotshots barely out of the Academy right? All wet-behind-the-ears and runny-nosed!" the gray haired boy said with mockery in his voice, but still being able to sound friendly at the same time. "This isn't a school fieldtrip you know."

"Who the hell do you think you are?" Ino all but growled out feeling quite annoyed with the newcomer. He was obviously older than her or anyone else in their small group, but that gave him no right to insult her or Sasuke-kun. The others he could insult as much as he liked, she did not care about them. He was also ruining her happily reunion with _her_ Sasuke-kun and was not about to take it lightly.

"Names Yakushi Kabuto," the teen introduced himself, "and you kids need to open your eyes."

"To what? All the people staring at us? Or the fact that this whole place reeks of killer intent? Or that everyone here seems to be on the edge?" Sasuke ask smugly, knowing that the guy was trying to pull something. No one would come up to a challenger and offer them help if they were not going to gain something in return, it was something that Obito had taught him. But his cousin also pointed out that there were a few good people who would do things without wanting anything in return and had used Naruto as an example there.

Upon seeing the surprised look on Kabuto's face, Sasuke knew he hit a nerve. Nevertheless, the other boy quickly hid his surprise by covering it up with a friendly smile.

"You seem to know your way around, I'm surprised that I haven't seen you here before," Kabuto said, trying to sound sweet and friendly. Though neither Sasuke nor Sakura were buying his acted. On the other hand, the other Rookies were not so luckily. They were hanging onto every word he was saying when he told then that it was his seventh time taking the exam. They did not seem to know that Kabuto was obviously trying to pry stuff out of them by getting on their good side and giving them minimally information with his strange nin chards while he got what he wanted. The two members of Team 7 didn't really know what the teen was after, but they thought it was information on them so that he could find out their own weaknesses and use it against them later on in the exam. It was the only thing that they could think of that he could want from them, since they really didn't have anything else.

Kabuto continued to tell the others about the new village, Oto, but Sasuke and Sakura had drowned him out. They began to look around the room hoping to see their missing teammate. Again, Sakura caught sight of blond hair, but it was the same blonde haired girl with four pigtails as before. Yet now, Sakura could see what the girl really looked like. She was older than her by a few years, probably around fifteen or sixteen the cherry blossom would guess. The girl's hitai-ate told her that she was from the Sand and the giant fans on her back would have to be her main weapons and were very dangerous, if Sakura would have to guess. Teal eyes locked with her own green ones, but the cherry blossom did not break their gaze when the other girl started to glare at her and give her an odious look.

Finally their gaze broke when the blonde haired girl's companion stepped in front of her. The blonde's companion, a boy with a rather large wrapped bundle on his back seemed to be a year under then the blonde, but just as dangerous. The boy wore a body suit that covered his whole being and had face pant on. Though, in the cherry blossom's opinion, it made him look like a clown. A very scary looking clown at that. Remembering that she was looking for her teammate, the pinked haired girl went back to scanning the room, but found nothing.

Sasuke was in the same situation as his female teammate, he could not find their blond teammate at all. Nothing caught his interest at all. He was just about to suggest to Sakura to walk around the room, since Naruto could very easily be hidden by the amounts of people around him being so short, but he never got the chance. A loud bellow that silenced the whole room rang out and a poof of smoke centered around the front of the room appeared. When the smoke cleared, the examiners were standing in front of the room, all of them intimidating to the genin in the room.

Finally when everyone quiet, the head examiner made his way to the front of the room. The only reason that the whole room went quiet was because of the fact that everyone was focused on the man. The man was covered in scars all across the parts of his body could be seen. His hitai-ate was being used as a bandana to cover the top of his head and he wore a dark colored trench coat.

"Sorry to have to keep you waiting," the scared man spoke up. "My name is Morino Ibiki. I'm the proctor and chief examiner for the first part of the exam and from the point forward, if you don't obey my rules, you'll be disqualified. From now on, there will be no more fighting without the permission of the examining officer. And even if that permission is granted, anything that endangered another applicant's life is strictly forbidden. Any of you little piglets that break that rule are out. Disqualified. No second chances. Got that?"

"So this is a test of little girly men?" one of the applicants from the Sound village snickered out causing the rest of the room to chuckle as well.

Sighing, Ibiki shook his head at the naivety of some of the participants of the exam. "As you wish. The first part of the Chunnin Exam is about to commence. Turn in your written applications, take one of these seating assignments cards and report directly to the seat indicated. When everyone is seated, we'll pass out the written part of the exam."

A shout from within the crowd was heard in protest of the injustice of it all.

* * *

"Papers face down until I saw so," Ibiki shouted once everyone was seated in their assigned seats. "Now listen up! There are a few big rules that pertain to this first test, so listen carefully because I'm only saying this once, but I'm not taking any questions." A few murmurs went throughout the room, but they were soon silenced when the chief examiner went on. "Rule number one! Each one of you starts out here with ten points. The test has ten questions and each time you miss one, one point will be subtracted from your points. Get all ten right and you retain all ten of your points, but get, say three wrong, you'll only have seven points. Rule two, this exam is still a team event."

"But what if our teammates aren't here?" a Grass shinobi asked, knowing that his teammates were not there with him for some reason.

"I said, I'm not going to answer any questions!" the examiner barked out. "As I was saying, passing or failing will be determined by the sum of the points held by all three members of the team. The object is for each team to have the fewest points deductions as possible from the joint team efforts. Rule three, if any member of the a team does something out of the ordinary, in other things, anything that leads the examiners to determine that he or she has cheated, we'll subtracted two points from each member of the cheater's team. And when you run out of points, not only will you be disqualified, but your whole team will be disqualified, no matter how well the other two do."

"And I'll be looking over your shoulders when you at least expect it," one of the other examiners said. It was very ironic that no one seemed to notice that the man looked like an older form of the spiky haired bully. They were all to scared of the thought of failing the Chunnin Exam over a simple paper test and cocky examiners.

"If you let the examiners catch you cheating, you'll bring yourself and your friends down! If you aspire to become Chunnin… if you want to be the best shinobi you can be…" Ibiki continued on, gaining all the applicants' attention, "…than you better start asking like you already are! You have an hour…starting _Now!_"

Upon hearing the go ahead, a roomful of papers flipping over could be heard. The tension seemed to build when the first question was full read and comprehend. The question really made them think and work their brain off, but was worse than that was the fact that the next question was even harder than the first. Then the third question was harder than the second and so on and so on. It was unthinkable how hard this test was, no genin could even dream of answering half of these questions on their own.

Everyone in the room was trying to answer at least one question, knowing fully well if they did not answer one they would automatically fail. It was obvious to them that the teams with the most points would go on to the next part of the Chunnin Exams. The only thing they did not know was how many teams would move on exactly. As a result, they had to answer as many questions as possible, or they would not go on.

As the other members racked their brains for the answer to any of the questions, Sakura began to speed through the test. It was not that she knew everything right away, she still needed to work everything out, but it was not hard. It was just tedious work. Something that seemed to take her awhile to finished each question, some taking longer than other. Yet not once did she even consider having to cheat, her mind was more focused on her work.

Sasuke, on the other hand, did not know the answer to one single question, but he seemed to figure out the meaning of the test right within minutes. The test was not only a test of intelligence, while it was, but in a more complicated matter. The test was also a test of their information gathering skill and their stealth. It was based off the principle that shinobi must uncovered the secrets within the secrets and to look underneath the underneath. They wanted them to cheat without getting caught, like they would have to on a mission, but here they were giving them the chance to mess up four times. On a mission, if they did that, they would most certainly be dead.

It would seem that Sasuke wasn't the only one to figure out the true meaning of the test. The one's that have figured out the meaning of the test had begun to gather the information in their own way. The tension seemed to lesson in a few seconds flat, since they all were too occupied with collecting the answers for the test. The Hyuuga that was teammates with Lee was using his bloodline limit, the Byakugan, to collected his information and relay it to Lee. Kiba was using Akamaru to relay the answers to him while his bug-boy teammate was using his bugs to give him the answers. There were other ways that people were cheating, but Sasuke was not really looking because he had found the person he was going to copy and activated his sharingan, using only three tomoes.

Suddenly there was the sound of a kunai sailing through the air before a thud was heard of the kunai imbedding itself into something. All the heads turned towards the kunai and found it sticking out of a Leaf shinobi's paper, the shinobi himself looking stunned and frighten. Following the path the kunai had taken, the genin saw that it had come from the spiky haired examiner.

"Wh-at w-as t-hat fo-r?" the Konoha shinobi stuttered.

"That was five strikes and you're out," the spiky haired jounin spoke up.

Taken back the genin stumbled backwards. "N-no way."

"Take your teammates with you and get out of this classroom. Now," the jounin said with a smirk. Without another word the three genin of that team left the classroom, all muttering under their breathes. After the first team went, it seemed like a floodgate had open and one team after another was dismissed by the examiners. It was then that the tension seemed to build back up with all of the teams being dismissed. Even more tension built up when the genin came to the last question on the test. One genin even had the guts to get up and ask if they could go use the restroom. He was granted the opportunity, but an examiner had to go with him.

__

10) This question will not be provided until forty-five minutes into the exam. At that time, please answer the chief examiner's to the best of your ability.

"Get ready for the tenth question!" Ibiki shouted out all of a sudden, causing some of the more focused genin to jump slightly when they heard him.

* * *

Oh, the outfit that Sasuke is wearing I kind of modeled after the picture in the **Naruto **Manga **Volume 3, Chapter 24: Speed!!** Page 127. It looked cool and I was trying to find a picture on the internet of Sasuke in different clothing for inspiration, but I couldn't find any. However, when I began to reread some of my manga again, I came across the picture and thought of it as just prefect.

Kitsune (my new fox plushie that I got for my birthday) and Shi no Tenshi want to thank everyone that reviews! Bye now! (Yes I know I'm a little strange today, but I'm sleep deprived and it does weird things to my mind... not to mention my writing..')


	18. Forest of Death

Thanks for all the reviews and I just wanted to say, since I forgot to last chapter, that I do know that the Yondaime's real name is Namikaze Minato, but for now, I'm going to keep it as Kazama Arashi.

* * *

"Alright here it comes," Ibiki said with all eyes focused in on him, "get ready for the tenth question." 

The whole room that was silent before seemed to stand still as if everyone was holding their breath. This next question would either make them or break them, but they did not know how true that statement was. The genin did not even know what they were up against. They did not know that their chief examiner was the renowned torture and interrogation specialist. Not to mention that he was the head of the ANBU's interrogation and torture unit.

"And before we get to the tenth question itself, I'm going to add one more new rule," the interrogator continued on, watching in satisfaction as most of the participants seemed to freeze up even more, if that was at all possible. They all seemed to fear what Ibiki was about to say next when he announced his new rule for the exam. Whatever it was, it was not going to be good for them. "Let me explain, this rule is absolute. First, you must choose weather to accept or rejected the tenth question. If you reject the question and don't even try to answer it, you'll lose all your points immediately and fail, along with both your teammates. But if you choose to take the question and get it wrong, you'll never be permitted to apply for the Chunnin Exams again. Not ever!"

The room seemed to shake with the new rule. It was something that definitely drew some setbacks, some major setbacks. It was the decision of a lifetime. If they did not at least try to attempt the tenth question then they would have to wait a half a year, or even a full year, to take the exams once again. Yet if they continued to take the test and failed the last question, they would never have the chance to take the exam again. It was a real dilemma. To take the test or not to take the test? It was a question only they could answer and even then, they could only answer for themselves.

It was not long until someone's willpower broke and it seemed to be the Grass nin right next to Sakura. When the first team had finally left the room, it looked like the floodgates had opened and all the cowards were raising their hands. Not only damning themselves for not going on, but also damning their teammates as well. Sasuke counted eight people just in front of him raise their hands and leave the room with their teammates. However, thirteen teams left the room. It seemed somewhat odd to him, but the Uchiha did not think much of it. It was five minutes until the end of the test and there was a little over a hundred participates left out of the three hundred that were in the room.

Seeing that everything had calmed down, Ikibi began to address the room again once the other examiners nodded their head in approval to him. "Good call to everyone that's still here for you've just passed the first part of the Chunnin Exams."

"Hunh?!"

"What?!"

"The _fuck?!_" Kiba yelled above the whole crowd of buzzing, none understanding how they could have passed the test without actually answering the tenth question. None of them remembered answering any question, which was not making sense to any of them. How could they pass if they had not answered the tenth question? Seeing the chaos he had caused, Ibiki grinned in delight.

"You've all passed the exam, because you answered the tenth question right, for you've accepted the challenge ahead of you. Everything else you all went through was to test your skills at spying and stealth," Ibiki explained as if he was giddy little kid getting a new present at Christmas time. "In other words, you were all set up to cheat since the questions were beyond the capability of any normal genin."

Ibiki seemed to want to be going on with his speech, but he was not given the chance. Instead, something broke through the closed window, shattering the glass all around and causing uproar in the classroom. A bundle of black flew in through the broken window, before kunai and shurikens shoot out from the center of the bundle and stuck into the walls around, unraveling the black bundle. The bundle turned out to be a banner of sorts with a woman inside of it. The black banner read 'Newly Arrived Second Chief Examiner, Mitarashi Anko!!!'

As for the woman -who was obviously Mitarashi Anko- there was something about her that was a little off. The woman had purple hair held upwards in spikes and her brown eyes were piercing, definitely not friendly in any matter at all. Her clothes consisted of a mesh black skintight outfit of sorts with a cream-colored skirt on over the top -which left nothing to the imagination- and a trench coat of the same color. Her hitai-ate was tied around her forehead, but did not seem to glisten like other headbands in the room. Hers was more worn out and looked like it had seen many battles, just like Ibiki's.

"None of you are in any position to celebrate! I'm the second chief examiner Mitarashi Anko!!!" Anko shouted to the stunned genin. "Time's a-wasting', people. Let's go! Follow me!"

Sakura could feel her eye twitching watching the woman. Anko was crazy in her mind and reminded her too much of Kiba and his boastful attitude. It did not help that most of the older male genin were fixated on Anko's boobs as she moved around the room while some of the greener recruits were stunned at the woman's attitude. It was going to be a long second part of the Chunnin Exam.

"Hey! Wait a minute…there's a hundred and eight people here still here…that means you passed seventy-two teams. What the hell Ibiki? You passed seventy-two teams?!" Anko yelled as she looked throughout the room. "You went easy on them, didn't you?"

The whole room seemed to tense when Anko asked if Ibiki went easy on them seeing as it was one of the most, if not the most, difficult things they had ever done.

"This year we have applicants of exceptional caliber," Ibiki replied, but did not deny or confirm Anko's assumptions. Nonetheless, it did seem to put to the genin at ease, at least until the purple haired woman spoke again.

"Don't worry, I'll cut them down by half," Anko said with a sadistic smirk on her face. "Oooh, I just get charged up thinking about it! I'll explain things in detail as soon as we move to our next location- now follow me!!"

* * *

The genin were all standing in front of a very,_ very_, large forest with a tall fence surrounding it. Just looking at the forest sent the genin with higher chakra awareness trembling in fear. The ones that did not have high chakra awareness were making fun of the ones that did for being afraid of a forest. What they did not know -that the genin with high chakra awareness did- was that the whole entire forest was pulsing with chakra and not an ordinary chakra. It was something that they could not describe in words known to man. It almost felt _ancient_ and none of it felt kind either. 

"This is the area for the second exam: training ground 44, also known as the Forest of Death," Anko told the group in a giddy voice, something that scared most of the applicants.

"It looks pretty creepy," a female Iwa nin stated quietly to nobody in particular.

However, the girl did not say it quietly enough for Anko heard her and stated to chuckle. "Of course it's creepy and you'll be learning first hand just how creep it is and just why it is call the _Forest of Death! _Though before we begin the second part of the exam, you all have to sign these consent forms," the second examiner said hold up a bunch of papers in her left hand.

"Why?" a Suna shinobi asked trying to sound cocky, but it was not working when Anko turned her eyes towards the boy.

"It's simple really," Anko replied happily, "we want all the details covered before the first death occurs. Sign before you go in so we won't be held liable for what ever happens to you. You wouldn't want me to get in trouble, now would you? Though you probably want me to explain the second part of the exam to you first before all of you sign these forms, ne? With your teammate, or by yourself, you will submit your consent forms to the hut behind me, got that? Now about the second part of the Chunnin Exams.

"To put it simply, it's a no-holds-barred survival test. Training ground 44 is a bordered by a circular perimeter, interrupted at regular intervals by forty-four locked gates. There are forests and a river and in the center is a tower a little bit more than ten kilometers from each of those gates. Within the confines of the carefully delineated area, you're going to undergo a survival test. During the course of that test, you may use any ninja arts or weapons you have at your disposal. It's a kind of fight-to-the-death version of 'capture the flag' or in this case, 'capture the scroll.'"

"Scroll?" a random ninja asked.

"Exactly," Anko said with her creepy smile in place, "there is a 'Scroll of Heaven' and a 'Scroll of Earth' and your objective is to acquire both scrolls. There are seventy-two teams, meaning that thirty-six teams will start off with a Heaven Scroll and the other thirty-six of the teams will start off with an Earth Scroll. But you'll need both scrolls to pass. Therefore, your goal is to hold on to your own scroll, get your hands on one of the other kind and then bring them both to the tower at the center. So half of you will fail, yet it get's even better. There is a time limit of a hundred-sixty-eight hours to complete this portion of the exam, exactly one week! And this forest is full of nature's bounty as well as man-eating animals, deadly insects, and poisonous plants."

"There is no way thirty-six teams will pass this exam," Sakura spoke up, the purple haired woman's eyes immediately focusing on her, but Sakura did not flinch like any of the others standing around her did. "As the time shortens, the trials will be come harder and faster with less recovery time for mistakes, accidents, or injures. We'll be surrounded by enemies at all times, so we'll have to sleep with one eye open. In addition to those of us that die in attempts to defend or capture a scroll, some of us are bound to succumb to exhaustion, exposure, starvation, and dehydration."

"That's correct," Anko praised the cherry blossom head while the others seem to twitch under what the smart girl had told them. "And now for the rules and what offensive can get you disqualified. Obviously if you doesn't make it to the tower within the given time duration as a team with both the Ten and Chi scrolls are out. So is any team that loses a member, whether it be to death or sever injure and under no circumstances can you leave the forest before the time is up. No recess. No timeouts. In addition, you are forbidden to look at the contents of the scrolls until you're at the tower. This is to test you to see if you can be trusted since chunnin are sometimes entrusted with important documents that they are not to look at for any reason at all, so consider this a test of your trustworthiness."

Anko then started to walk off towards the hut they were to turn in their consent forms into, but stopped when a shout came to her attention.

"How the _hell_ are we supposed to pass this stupid exam with our whole team when our last teammate isn't even here?" Kiba shouted pushing his way to the front of the crowd and glaring at the sadistic examiner's back. However, his bark was soon silenced when Anko spun around on her heels and flung a kunai at the flamboyant boy. The kunai whizzed though the air and sliced Kiba's left cheek before the canine boy could even think. Nevertheless, the most disturbing part about that was that Anko was right behind him in the next second _licking_ his _blood_ from his cheek.

"Heh, your kind are always the first to go," the purple haired woman said in between licks, "spill that rich, red, lovely, luscious blood."

Suddenly Anko stopped licking up the blood belonging to a grossed out, trembling Kiba as she held another kunai about ready to cut off a Grass nin's unusually long tongue that held the kunai she flung at the dog-boy. The nin wore a strange looking outfit with a big gaudy purple bow on the back and a straw hat rested upon his head shading his face from Konoha's blazing sun. What was even creepier was that the man seemed to be wearing awful looking make-up.

"I believe you dropped this kunai," the creepy nin said.

"Gee, thanks," Anko said with an insane smile as she put both kunai away. "Just don't stand behind me radiating bloodlust unless you are in a hurry to die."

"I'll try to keep it under control but the sight of warm fresh blood really makes me crazy and I was already revved up from losing a strand of my precious hair that your kunai cut off," the Grass nin said as his tongue retreated into his mouth.

"Sorry about that," the woman said with a smile, but she really did not seem to be sincere with her apology. Letting go of Kiba, Anko walked back up in front of the crowd and addressed them as a whole. "It has been brought to my attention that your whole team is not with you at them moment, am I right?"

There was a collective response of 'yes' throughout the crowd as well as murmurs that seemed to start up.

"None of you would be here if our whole team was not here," Anko barked out, immediately silencing the small talk going on. "But you are right. Your whole team is not here right now. They are already in the Forest of Death and have been since we've been standing around yapping to one another. Some might already be dead or dieing as we speak."

"Nani?!" Ino shouted. "Why are they already in _there_?"

"In missions teams will get separated and will have to regroup without stumbling into enemy territory or being caught," Anko began to explain. "To recreate these situations, we split up every team and told half of them that the Chunnin Exams were at the local Academy while the others were given a different location to report to. All of them had to take the same test as you and go through everything you did, but, like some of you here, most of them had to take the test alone since they were the only one of a three cell team to be there. Does things to one's nerves if you asked me. That's all the explanation you'll get. When you have filled out your consent forms and turn them in you'll get your scroll, or your teammate inside of the forest will already have your group's scroll. When you're finished, choose the gate you'll start from and can go right in. So if there are no more questions, I have one piece of advice for you, stay alive."

With that, Anko walked off for real this time as the other teams hurried to complete their consent forms wanting to get them done as soon as possible so they could get in the forest and help their teammates that were already in there. However, as the different groups were filling out their forms, it started to sink in what the forms were all about. They finally realized that their lives were on the line. Yet that did not stop most of them from backing out, some because their careers were on the line and others because of the knowledge that their teammates were already inside the forest fighting for their lives. It was no different for Team 7, but their reason for going was not because they wanted to advance in their shinobi career or their teammate was inside the forest most likely fighting for his life. It was because they did not want to let their _friend_ to go at it alone and die. They knew Naruto would do the same for them given the same situation.

Finishing their consent forms, Sasuke and Sakura made their way into the hut. Turning in their forms, one of the lower examiners handed Sasuke a Heaven Scroll. Thanking them, the two members of Team 7 were told to go to an unoccupied gate to start the second part of the Chunnin Exams. Nodding their heads, the two walked off towards the left of the hut, the scroll already hidden safely inside of Sasuke haoiri. Walking away from the crowed area, the two followed the fence surrounding training ground 44 looking for a suitable gate to enter from. Hoping to find any sign of Naruto if they could, but not coming up empty handed. However, they did find Anko leaning up against the fence next to a gate with her eyes closed as if she was waiting for something.

Not caring about the crazy woman, Sasuke and Sakura were going to pass by her to go to another gate when her voice stopped them.

"And where do you two think you're going?" the woman asked without opening her eyes.

"To the next gate," Sasuke said without looking at her. Following his example, Sakura following the boy as he walked away, not bothering to talk to the woman at all.

"And here I thought that you would want to find that cute blond haired teammate of yours as soon as possible," Anko said pushing up off the gate and began walking away. "Guess not."

"What do you mean?" the Uchiha asked harshly, stopping the woman in her tracks as well as himself.

"Well the cute blond and that fox of his did go through this gate, but since you're not going to use it, I guess I'll be going," Anko said off handedly, not turning around to face the two.

Narrowing his eyes, the dark haired genin carefully looked the second chief examiner over. "Why are you helping us?"

"Just returning a favor to the cute blond and his fox for warning me about a peeping tom," the purple haired woman said, turning around with a smile that looked just like Naruto's foxy smile on her face. However, unlike Naruto's smile, there seemed to be a murderous intent in her eyes when she talked about the peeping tom and, to put it bluntly, it was scary to see. Luckily, it was gone within a second of its appearance, but now she was muttering something about a…toad? Weird.

"You said he went through here?" Sakura asked, speaking to the woman for the first time since the whole conversation started.

"Sure did," Anko replied forgetting her strange mutterings about a toad.

"Then we pick this gate to go through," Sakura said determinedly without consulting Sasuke on her decision, but she did not have to since the boy agreed with her decision.

"Alright then," Anko said pulling out a key and unlocking the gate before holding it open to let them pass. The two member of Team 7 looked at one another before back into the forest through the open gates. Without any other hesitation, the two walked confidently inside. Once they were inside, the gate closed with a click behind them and the sound of the lock being redone drifted to their ears. The second part of the Chunnin Exams had begun for the members of Team 7 and they were not all together. Meaning they could not rely on each other and their abilities they had.

* * *

Since they really did not know where Naruto and Kyuubi were exactly, Sasuke and Sakura decided to head towards the tower in the center. They figured since it was the place everyone would end up, Naruto would head towards that very way as well. It was a reasonable assumption, but they also had to remember that when it came to Naruto and his kitsune nothing was reasonable. They had been walking for close to an hour and Sakura figured that they had only gone half of a kilometer, but it was good timing since they were trying to stay hidden while looking for their teammate, something that was very difficult to do so. 

They had just come to a semi-clearing, when rustling noise on the opposite side of the clearing drew their attention. The two members of Team 7 were about to take to the trees to remain unseen when the third member of Team 7 came stumbling through the foliage. There was nothing that had changed about the blond haired boy in the last two weeks that they had gone without seeing one another. Except for a few scratches and mud stains here and there on his orange jumpsuit pants. Something that obviously came from wondering around the Forest of Death and other participants while taking the exam. His eyes seemed a little dull, but when they caught sight of the two on the other side of the clearing, they lit up

"Sakura! Sasuke!" the blond chirped upon seeing them and a smile spread across his face. The blond made a move to run over to them, but was stopped by Sasuke. Actually, it was more like Sasuke sent Naruto flying with one hard blow to the face. Blood was dripping everywhere as the blond went sliding through the fallen leaves and grass.

"_Sasuke!_" Sakura screeched upon seeing the violent acted committed upon her blond teammate by her raven teammate.

"He's not Naruto, Sakura," Sasuke explained glaring over at _Naruto_. He really did not know how he knew it, but he just _knew_ that the person in front of him was not Naruto. Sure the person looked like Naruto, had the same color hair, same outfit, the same whisker like marks on his cheeks, but he just did not _feel_ right. The fact that his eyes were not the unique blue shade that Naruto and the Yondaime seem to have and Kyuubi was not with the person in front of them was also a big hint that it was not the real Naruto in front of them.

Chucking, _Naruto_ slowly stood up before he was surrounded by a swirl of smoke that was quickly blown away by a sudden breeze blow away the smoke to reveal the Grass nin with the freakishly long tongue. "What gave me away?"

"Kyuubi, Naruto's pet fox, isn't with you and that fox follows him _everywhere_," the Uchiha explained with a smirk on his face. Pulling out a kunai, the dark haired genin spun it around his finger before gripping it tightly in a battle ready position.

"Sasuke," Sakura said lightly so that only her teammate might hear what she had to say, "I… this guy's way out of our league. His illusion, I couldn't see through it or even faintly detected its presents and I can detect _any_ jounin genjutsu."

Hearing this, Sasuke looked uneasily towards the man, not sure of his capabilities up against the unknown man. He knew for a fact that he could not take on a jounin; his spars with Zabuza and Obito were proof enough of that. Yet he also knew of shinobi that specialized in one area of ninja techniques and this guy specialized and excelled in only genjutsu. Sasuke was thinking about retreating like his teammate suggested, but that was before the Grass nin held up an Earth Scroll, the scroll they needed to pass the exam.

"I suppose this is what you need to pass the exam since you've already got a Heaven Scroll," the man said with an evil smirk on his face. But before either Sakura or Sasuke could make a move for the scroll, he shoved it down his _throat_ and _swallowed _the scroll whole. "Now we shall see who gets whose scroll, it'll be a fight to the _Death!_"

Sasuke and Sakura were about to retreat, but before they could they were caught within an illusion. The illusion was to simulate their death. A very complicated and complex genjutsu, but it was still only a jounin level jutsu. Meaning that Sakura could, and did, counter the illusion.

The Grass nin was obvious surprised by his genjutsu was so easily broke by the genin in front of him. However, he was not stunned for long and quickly drew two kunai. Flinging the kunai at the two, the man aimed to kill, but missed. The raven-haired made sure of that, once he got over the slight shock that his teammate was able to break the illusion so easily.

Sasuke unsheathed his katana with ease and familiarity; he used it to deflect both incoming kunai and redirected them back towards their owner. The Grass nin did not expect such a thing from the Uchiha and almost did not dodge the kunai, which cost him. Not by much though, just a cut on his left forearm, yet it was still an accomplishment. It also caused the shinobi to lose sight of his targets for a split second, but that was all that the Konoha ninjas needed. In the time that the Grass shinobi's eyes were not on them, Sasuke and Sakura took that as their chance to disappear.

The two Konoha genin took to hiding up in a tall tree with many branches that could hide them from view. That way they could see their enemy and he could not them. Or at least that was what they hoped was the case. Both tried to calm their ragged breathing and slow it down as to be not seen or found. It would have worked too, if it were not for the fact that a rather large snake slithered down the tree from higher up.

Both Sasuke and Sakura saw the snake at the same time and both jumped to dodge the snake, but in different directions. The snake not having time to change its direction because of the momentum behind its strike, crashed head first into the thick tree branches where its two targets had been previously. The hit on the head did not keep the snake down for long, since it got right back up afterwards and went after the prey nearest to it. One that happened to be jumping from branch to branch trying to escape it, her pink braided hair bouncing behind her as she jumped.

Slithering as fast as its body would allow it, the snake chased after the girl and was catching up rather quickly. It was within seconds that it caught up with the girl and cornered the girl in between a few trees and its own body. Pulling back its head so it was up in the air, readying itself to strike the girl down. Lunching forward, the snake found itself coming short by a few feet and an incredible pain coming form the base of its tail. Looking back to his tail, the snake found that its tail was pinned to the ground by the Uchiha's katana and the Uchiha stood right next to it shoving the blade further into the snake's tail and further pinning it to the ground.

Hissing like only a snake could, the snake tried to attack the raven but came short as the boy jumped right out of its reach and his katana held its tail in place. Smirking, Sasuke grabbed a handful of shuriken and threw them at the pinned snake with such strength that half of the weapons went straight through the snake and came out the other side clean of any blood, while the rest stayed with in the snake causing it more damage and pain. It was no wonder the large snaked died with all the blood coming out of it. Once the snake was down, the Uchiha walked towards its tail and removed his katana, cleaning it with a rather large leaf before sheathing.

Sakura, who had come up behind him, was about to say something when she noticed that the snake's skin was moving like there was something underneath. Gasping as the movement became more frequent and on a larger scale, the cherry blossom gained her teammate's attention and looked towards the dead snake.

"What the hell?" Sasuke murmured upon seeing the snake's skin moving unnaturally.

The skin kept moving around until it split open from the inside and the Grass nin came from inside of the snake. The shinobi's eyes locked with Sasuke and his body seemed to freeze up. The Uchiha could not seem to move at all, his mind told him to move but his body would not do what it was told. It was as if his body was frozen and off but his mind was on and could see everything happening to him. He watched as the Grass nin snaked and slithered his way towards him with such speed, preparing to attack, but he helpless to do a thing to avoid the incoming attack, his body refusing to respond. All the while, the enemy's eyes were locked with his own.

Before the other shinobi could actually reach him, a hoard of shuriken and kunai landed directly between him and the enemy nin. As a result, the snake like man had to stop advancing towards Sasuke to avoid being hit with the weapons. He also had to break eye contact with him as well and as soon as that happened, the Uchiha's body started to respond to his brain allowing him to move. Jumping away from the Grass nin, the raven put as much distance between himself and the man as possible at the moment. Yet he did not let his eyes leave the man, knowing if he lost sight of him, then they would be in even bigger trouble, but he made sure not to lock eyes with the man again either. Whatever he had done with his eyes to make him freeze up like that, Sasuke was going to make sure it would never happen again.

"You're right Sakura, this guy is way out of our league," the raven said in between his deep breathing. "And I have a feeling he isn't after the scroll, but something else, and when he gets that, we're as good as dead."

"I know what you mean, this guy is neither playing around nor is he even trying to get the scroll," Sakura responded from her perch in the tree right next to Sasuke. She was nervous and scared beyond what she had ever been before. This man, the Grass shinobi, was powerfully, way more powerfully than she could even hoped to be anytime soon and she knew that they could not beat him alone. However, she would not let her true emotions show, she would act calm in the face of danger, because if he got wind that she was scared, he would use that to his advantage and she would not allow that. Her weaknesses were hers alone and she was going to face them, no matter what. "It's almost like he's testing us, trying to determine our true capabilities. Up for retreating?"

"After you saved me from been attacked by that man while I was immobile, I'd have to agree," the Uchiha replied, understanding perfectly well that they were outclassed and needed to get out of there if he wished to live. It may have damaged his pride that he was fleeing, but he was not stupid and would not stay around here to die. Obito had always stressed to him to know one's own limit and give up while still alive. One could not come back from the dead and exact their revenge, but the living could always train harder and defeat the obstacle in their way. Which was what the man before him was, an obstacle that was in his way, but one he would deal with another time if they could escape.

Nevertheless, things did not seem to want to go Team 7's way and the Grass nin either overheard their conversation, which was unlikely since they were talking at only a whisper, or he decided to take it up a notch. Whatever it was, it made it impossible for Sasuke and Sakura to escape from the man. The Grass nin had bitten his own finger and ran the bloodied finger over a tattoo on his wrist. Chakra seemed to gather in heaps around the shinobi before a giant cloud of smoke formed around the man as he calmly called out the name of his new attack.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu."

From within the smoke a giant snake came out, the snake that had attacked them from before paled in comparison to the huge snake before them now. With one flick of its mighty tail, the snake easily sent both Sakura and Sasuke flying from their perches and through the air. They crashed through the tree branches, causing numerous cuts and scraps to form, and only came to a halt when both simultaneously hit the truck of a tree, effectively knocking the wind out of them. Their bodies then proceeded to fall to the ground, neither one making a move to stop themselves from colliding with the ground.

The genin's bodies made a sickening sound when they hit the ground while throwing up a lot of dirt. When the dirt cleared, Sakura lay unconscious on the ground, her eyes scrunched closed and her body bruised. Other than the cuts and scraps though, the girl looked to be fine, seeing as there were no broken bones nor any indications of any other injures. Sasuke on the other hand, looked to be doing a little better than his teammate. He was currently pushing his battered body up off the ground, coughing up blood, but not totally vulnerable like his unconscious teammate.

"So you're not beaten yet," the Grass nin chuckled maniacally from his place on to of the giant snake's head, "but that means more fun for the predator. After all, the fun has just begun."

As if the snake knew what its summoner wanted, the snake dived at the two unprepared genin. Acting on the adrenaline pumping through his system, Sasuke dodged to the side, grapping Sakura's limp body on the way. Nevertheless, the attacks were not going to stop there just because he could dodge one blow. No, instead the snaked and its summoner keep on coming after the Uchiha and the girl being treated as if she were luggage at the moment. They seemingly were getting a sick sort of pleasure chasing the two Konoha genin down and attack them as Sasuke barely had enough time, and energy, to get out of the way. But as time went by, more of Sasuke's energy was waste and the sloppier his moves became. It was a matter of time before either his body gave out on him or the snake actually was able to get him.

The irony of it all was that Sasuke's body gave out at the same time as the snake caught up to him. The result was Sasuke's body giving out from under him because of his and Sakura's combined weight and crumbling to the ground as the snake sailed overhead, totally missing them and crashing into a tree. Nonetheless, the snake got back up, its summoner not even the least bit affected by the snake crashing into the tree. Sasuke did not. The Uchiha stayed lying on the ground, Sakura laying a few feet in front of him, his strength from before gone. He just watched warily as the snake wound its body around them in a circle, cutting off any escape roots they could take if they had the energy to take it, but it did not strike.

"It looks like you are trapped. Nowhere to run, nowhere to go, no escape possible. You are trapped; nothing and no one can save you. I'm going to take great pleasure in killing you," the Grass said, wanting a raise out of the beaten boy and trying to get it anyway possible. "But you might be like your cousin, more worried about your teammate well being then yourself. If that's the case, then maybe I should kill your pink haired teammate before you, before tracking down the blond one and kill him as well. Though I should torture them before killing them, right in front of your face, that way they know it's all your fault. Your fault for not helping them, saving them, from the death that waits them. They'll hate you."

"No," Sasuke mumbled, trying to block out what the Grass nin was saying, not wanting to hear any of it, as if by closing his eyes as if that affected his hearing. Not wanting to think about either Sakura or Naruto being killed because of him, especially Naruto. Even though he still did not understand what he had felt for the blond boy, he knew that it would eat him up if the boy were to die because of him. It reminded him too much of what happened to his family. His brother killing his family and leaving him all alone in the world with only his cousin to take care of him.

Just thinking about it brought back the memories of that night. Sasuke could see the blood all around; he could see his brother standing over the top of his mother. Her body mangled and bloody and her eyes staring at him, lifelessly. Suddenly her body seemed to become hazy in Sasuke's mind before becoming clearer again, but this time the body was not of his mother's. It was the body of Naruto, bloodied and mangled like his mother's, but his eyes still help life. Life that was quickly fading away.

A pang went through his heart when he saw the life fade away from Naruto's eyes and it was then that he finally figured out what he felt for Naruto. It was the same thing he felt for his deceased family, but it was not the same. It was not a crush he had on the blond boy, but something more. It was as if the blond was the other half of him. He knew it was not quite in love with the blond yet, but given time, it could be. It was not a simple crush he had on the blond and he was finally going to admit that to himself. He liked the boy, he really like Naruto.

"You've been true to yourself and no one else, bask in the reward you have earned. The power that was locked away inside of you, the power that is your birthright, has now been unlocked and at your fingertips."

The three voices spoke as one so softly that it seemed that they were whispering right into Sasuke's ear. He really could not place where he heard those voices before, but he _knew_ he knew them and could trust them. However, what they said to him did not fully sink into his mind; all he understood was that he had to get out of there in order for him and his teammate to stay alive. His mind was running so fast that he did not realize that power that he had not had before was now coursing through his whole body. He did not hear the crashing of thunder from the spontaneous storm that had formed and seemed to lash about like the young Uchiha's emotions.

"_No!_" Sasuke shouted, his eyes snapping open to reveal his Mangekyou Sharingan, but it was not normal. His eyes were not red with a black three-pronged pinwheel in the center, but black with three red tomoes. However, the Grass nin did not have the chance to see the boy's eyes as he performed a jutsu, without using hand seals.

"Amaterasu."

The pitch-black flames were not breathed out or started like any other Katon jutsu; Sasuke's Amaterasu came alive as if it were summoned. The fire did not come anywhere near Sakura or Sasuke, but burned in an equidistant around the two, effectively burning the snake and sending it back from where it was summoned from. The Grass shinobi did not seem to understand what was going on and was suddenly thrown, tumbling to the ground when his summoning disappeared from under him. The man immediately caught himself and landed on a near by branch using chakra to stable his body so he would not fall. Looking over to where the boy had been, the Grass nin found that only the pink haired genin was in view.

The man did not even have anytime to ponder where the raven had gone before he was thrown from his perch by a kick powerful kick to his lower back. He tried to grab hold of another branch, but a lightning bolt struck the tree in front of him, momentarily blinding him. It the time he was blinded, the Grass nin struck a tree branch, effectively stopping him, but also causing one of his right ribs to break. Upon opening his eyes again and being able to see, the shinobi saw that the Uchiha was standing on a branch overhead of him looking down with an angry, grim face. It was then that he realized that their positions had changed slightly, Sasuke had become the predator, but he was no prey to take lightly, especially since he was holding back.

Grinning, the man stood up never breaking eye contact with the boy above him. A freaky look on his decaying face curtsey of the lightning that chard his face. With a quick pull of the rotten flesh, the Grass nin's face came off to reveal a new, a more disgusting face than before. One that was sickly pale with yellow snake eyes and greasy black hair. When he was finished taking his face off, the man then ran his hand over his hitai-ate and once he removed it, another symbol could be seen. One of a music note. Sound.

"Truly, a worthy successor to hold the honored name of the Uchiha clan," the snake man spoke as another flash of lightning lit the night's sky, yet the rain still refused to fall. Sasuke, never once affected by the man's actions of pulling off his face, did not even flinch when he was compared to the name of his clan. He just remained standing on his branch with an angry expression seemingly fixed on his face. "In fact, I believe I want you after all… It's marvelous fun, having you show me all your tricks."

It was then, when Sasuke got the ominous feeling that something was going to go wrong and tried to move, but the raven found he could not move. He was paralyzed. He couldn't move. He couldn't escape. He was trapped. Again.

"You really are _his_ brother, aren't you?" the snake man continued, seemingly unaware that the Uchiha was now frantic because he could not move. "You can see -and conceal- things with those eyes of yours that Itachi himself never dreamed of! With that power, I shall be the most powerful being ever. If you ever want a rematch, pass this exam as quickly as you can and seek out the Giant Snake, Orochimaru. And be sure of it, we will see each other again," the man, finally identified as Orochimaru, concluded while making the snake hand seal.

Sasuke watched in horror as the man's neck started to stretch, right towards him with snake fanged teeth bared. It was then Sasuke felt the adrenaline in his system give out and all the power that he had obtain receded back into his body, leaving him tired and weak. The lightning storm that once flickered around them so violently and full of rage seemed to die down just as quick as his own body did and nothing but the blacken sky told of the lightning that had been there just a few moments ago. He did not know what was coming, but he knew he did not want to see whatever the snake had in store for him. It was out of pure instincts that the Uchiha closed his eyes and awaited the fate that was coming to his paralyzed body.

* * *

Tsunade slowly made her way through the Hokage's tower towards the Hokage office with Shizune by her side. Both were very solemn not sure, what was going to happen. The storm outside reflecting their emotions perfectly at the time. They were on a very important self given mission, one that was way over due and one that they should have done long ago. They were going to tell the Yondaime Hokage, the Yellow Flash of Konoha, Kazama Arashi, that his son that was thought to be long since dead, was alive and right under his nose. That his son had been right there with him for the last few months and he had never known. 

They really did not know what they were going to tell him without telling him about the deities that they could not tell him about. Even though they did not know what to tell him, they knew that they had to tell him because it had been long since over due. Arashi had thought for the last eleven years that his son was dead when he was alive and living with the duty to all but save the whole entire world on his shoulders. It was also something that both Inaris had decided it was high time that Naruto finally meet his father that he knew was alive and lived somewhere in Konoha, but did not know exactly who it was.

Sighing, Tsunade stopped right in front of the Hokage office's door, Shizune right by her side, delaying the inevitable. Gathering her nerves, the blonde haired woman knocked on the door and waited for her answer. However, no one answered her knocking. The Slug Sannin was about to knock on the door again when a office worker, with a polite 'excuse me' and a stack of papers obscuring her view, pushed passed the two women and walked into the office after opening the door. Looking at each other, Tsunade and Shizune peered into the open office door and saw a bunch of worker scuttling about the room in frenzy with papers and other important things that needed to be looked over. In the middle of it all was the Yondaime Hokage sitting at his desk with Jiraiya right beside him.

The Hokage was busily signing papers and looking over thinks that were handed to him by the workers in the office while nodding his head occasionally in agreement or disagreement to what his old sensei was saying to him. There were sometimes shouts heard across the room, as an employee would either trip over something or bump up against another person, dropping a few things of what they were carrying. Overall, it was totally pandemonium.

Walking through all the chaos, Tsunade and Shizune made their was to the center of all the chaos, straight towards the Hokage's desk. Occasionally, they would have to stop and wait for an employee with an arm loaded with paperwork that walk in their pathway, but they eventually made it to the front of the desk. Yet they were not noticed right away. It only made the two wonder what was going on to have the whole office working so hard and the Hokage not to notice their presence in front of him right away.

"May I ask exactly what's going on?" Tsunade finally spoke up, forgetting why she had come to the Hokage in the first place.

Startled by her appearance, Arashi jerked up from his paperwork and looked towards the two women before him. "Tsunade-hime, when did you get here?"

Raising an eyebrow at that comment, Tsunade really had to wonder what was going on. "Just now. Mind telling me why it is utter chaos in here?"

"The Sandaime decided it was high time that he retire for good and spend time with his family instead of in the Hokage Tower," Jiraiya answered for the flustered Hokage that looked like he was about to pass out from mental exhaustion, that or burn all the paperwork that had been piled on top of his desk.

"And he left me to do all of this work that has to be done so that he can have retirement," Arashi groaned out, signing another paper and putting it on top of his done pile before another piece of paper took his place. "I hate my life at the moment."

Hearing that he hated his life at the moment reminded Tsunade what she was here for in the first place. Trying to find the words to explain what she had to say, Tsunade found that her apprentice had taken matters into her own hand.

"Arashi-san, we needed to discuss a very important matter with you in private," Shizune stated rather bluntly, which caused Arashi to look up at the woman before him. Seeing that the laid-back med-nin that usually let herself go unnoticed speak up brought Arashi to the conclusion that whatever the two women were there for it was important.

"Alright," the Hokage said making a gesture with his hand and waving the other busy people in the room off. When one tried to protest, the Hokage looked at them with a stern look and told them flatly that he was ordering them to go. With that said the employees scurried out of the office, but Tsunade told Jiraiya that it was all right for him to stay and stay he did, wanting to know what was so important that the Tsunade had come back to Konohagakure for, because it was not just to see her grandchildren. If that was true, then she would have come back to Konoha a long time ago and the Toad Sannin knew that there _had_ to be another reason that she returned. It looked like he had been right after all

When the door to the office had closed and they were alone, Jiraiya broke the silence that had formed when all the workers had left.

"So, what's so important that you can't talk about it in front of anyone else?" the white haired man asked, looking straight at his old teammate when he spoke.

With a little hesitation on her part, the blonde haired woman began, trying to choice her words delicately so there would not be an emotional, or physical, explosion to go off from Arashi. "It's- complicated, really, _really_, complicated. It's something that involves a few certain events that happened over the years, the first of such being when the Kyu-"

The Legendary med-nin was cut off by the doors of the Hokage office being thrown open and a jounin running into the middle of the office, panting with a look of great worry on his face.

"_Hokage-sama!!! Orochimaru _is _here_ in the _village!!!_" the jounin exclaimed with great fear.

"_What?!_" the Hokage ask shoving his hands down on the desk in front of him and propelling his body upwards in shock and concern. Shocked that Orochimaru was here in his village and concerned about how he had come to be in the village as well as why he was here. "Explain!"

Gulping, the jounin nodded his head, not wanting to see the Yellow Flash of Konohagakure's rage. "Three bodies, all belonging to shinobi from Kusagakure present here for the Chunnin Exams were found thirteen minutes ago by a team of ANBU. Their faces looked to be as if they were melted off, since they were so smooth with no facial features at all. Upon these findings, Mitarashi Anko was summoned to take a look at all the body and confirm our suspicions that Orochimaru was the one to kill them. She requested for two more ANBU teams be sent after Orochimaru while she herself went towards the Forest of Death, what she suspects is his current location."

Upon hearing that the traitorous snake was back in the village and in the training grounds 44 where the genin were currently taking their Chunnin Exams, Arashi immediately dispatched not only the two ANBU units that Anko requested, but an additionally two, knowing that the snake could be very tricky. He himself would have gone after the snake, having many things to settle with him himself, but he knew that would not be such a good idea and cause some panic. Turning towards Tsunade and Shizune, Arashi remembered that they had something important to tell him, but it had to wait now. Giving them an apologetic look, Arashi rushed out of the office to do all he could, never seeing the panicked looks on their faces.

"Arashi! Wait!" Tsunade called after the leaving blond. "I'm coming with you."

"So am I!" Jiraiya said, both chasing after the leaving man, knowing that man might have been strong, but there old teammate was strong as well. They both also had a few things to settle with their old teammate as well.

* * *

A howl of pain rung out through the deadly forest as Sasuke's eyes snapped open and a silent scream came from the Uchiha's mouth. His left shoulder throbbing with pain, yet no injures were there, but he could _feel_ the _evil_ flowing through his being. His eyes were unforced and his unique sharingan -which was not the Mangekyou Sharingan- deactivated. However, when his eyes finally did come back into focus once the pain receded somewhat, the raven wished it had not. 

What he saw was Orochimaru biting down on the neck of another person, who looked to be shorter than himself. The person was wearing light loose fitted black pants with a sleeveless black turtleneck shirt. White armor covered the back of his hand up to his biceps on his left arm and the exact same armor, but red in color, covered his right arm. The shinobi had no shuriken holster, but he did have a black bag attached to his waist. However, when Sasuke saw the bright blond hair, it finally clicked and he knew who it was without even seeing the boy's face. Naruto.

Naruto had intercepted Orochimaru from biting him and, in the process of doing so, had been bitten instead. The howl of pain had come from the blond when the snake had bitten the left junction of his neck, but Sasuke did not understand why he felt a slight throb of pain from the same place. However, his mind was too much in a haze to even think about it, he was only concern for Naruto, who had taken the blow for him, just as he had done before with Sakura with the Demon Brothers instead of him.

"Nar-ru-uto," Sasuke hoarsely coughed out before his mind shut down completely and his body lurched forward.

Upon releasing his hold, Orochimaru's neck went back into place and Naruto crumpled to the ground as he grabbed a hold of the bite mark through his black shirt. Orochimaru looked stunned seeing that he had missed his intended target and had gotten the Uchiha's other teammate instead. Nonetheless, he knew he did not have any more time left, he could feel his old apprentice coming his way and needed time to escape, yet he still could not move. His mind stopping him from doing so, knowing that all three genin were incapacitated, Sasuke and Sakura both being knocked unconscious and Naruto trying to fight the cursed seal he had unintentionally placed on the boy and it would only take a second for him to put a cursed seal on his intended target.

Making the same hand seals as before, Orochimaru went after Sasuke again.

Again, he was foiled. This time by a three-tailed kitsune bigger than a full-grown tiger slashing its claws across his face. Stumbling back while holding his bleeding cheek, Orochimaru stared in disbelief at the kitsune in front of him. He knew by just looking at the three tails swaying behind the fox that the kitsune was not normal and was not something that he could mess with at the time unless he wished to be caught.

"I _loathe _snakes," a softly spoken -yet harsh sounding- voice said, catching the snake's attention.

Turning his head towards the voice, he found the blond genin clutching his shoulder with the opposing hand, his teeth clutch tightly together in pain from the cursed seal placed on his neck. The most startling though, was the fact that the boy was up on his feet as the black glowing flame like design spread across his arm, but something else was fighting against the cursed seal. White glowing flames came from under his armor, fighting for dominance and trying to push the cursed seal back. It almost looked like another, different, cursed seal was placed on the boy and fighting the one, he placed on him for dominance over the boy.

He had no more time to ponder what was going on with the boy or why a kitsune was protecting the Uchiha boy, he had to get out of there. The snake could feel Anko's chakra coming dangerously close to his current location and he did not need her to find out about him placing a seal on the blond boy, even if it was by mistake. Looking back at the boy and the kitsune one more time each, Orochimaru took his leave -knowing that none of Team 7 could keep up with him at the moment- leaving the injured Naruto to take care of his equally injured teammates.

* * *

"Why? Why are you here? Why now?" Anko shouted, panting from her earlier fight with her enemy and old teacher, Orochimaru. She was beaten, she knew that, but she needed to stalk until the ANBU got there or at least find out why he was there. It was the least she could to do protected the village that had accepted her after Orochimaru brutally discarded her like a rag doll. She did not care about the pain coursing through her body because of the cursed seal that the demented man had placed upon her body had activated the long since dormant seal. However, she did not miss the dry bloody claw marks on his cheek while they were fighting and wondered what he had been doing before she had found him. It looked like one of the creatures that the Forest of Death was infamous for had got a hold of him and played with him a bit before letting the snake go. 

"For old times' sake of course, my dearest Anko! But from your cold reaction," the snake man said in a humorous tone, "one might suspect that you're not glad to see me!"

"What is it? An assassination attempted on Hokage-sama?" Anko bit out, not going to let the man hurt the man that help her regain her life. She owed him that much and so much more. He was the one that help pick up the pieces that Orochimaru had crushed her into when he left her and helped her make a name, a good name, for herself as one of Konoha's leading shinobi.

"Hell no! I lack the hubris and the proper number of subordinates to attempt anything of that magnitude!" Orochimaru state, leaning his back up against a near by tree to rest, but made it look like he was doing it to relax. He did not need Anko to know that he was worn out from battling a bunch of genin, but one in particular with unimaginable power that he wanted for himself. "My target is any shinobi in the village that displays extra ordinary abilities. In fact I left my mark as a parting gift on one of the boys!"

Orochimaru just did not mention that he left his mark on the wrong genin. Anko did not need to know he had messed up.

"You monster! It's a time bomb, he'll be dead in no time!" the snake mistress growled out through the pain caused by the cursed seal.

"That maybe so," Orochimaru said as if it were no big deal, since it was not to him. The blond boy could die for all he cared, he wanted the Uchiha. "But don't get any ideas about trying to end this exam. I plan to savor this. If something should happen to rob me of my enjoyment it will spell the end of Konohagakure."

* * *

Naruto sat underneath one of the Forest of Death's tall trees, the roots lifting the tree up to form a small cavern, but also doubled as protection from outside forces as well. His teammates, both still unconscious, were laid out with a cold cloth over each of their heads to prevent fever from setting in from any infections that they might have received from their open wounds. Two bags, which Naruto had stored in a storage scroll, had been summoned from within their resting places and used as pillows for the two unconscious genin. Both of their wounds were all clean and wrapped hazardously, but still secured on tightly to do their jobs properly. 

Kyuubi was out and about, on the orders of his master, hunting for food and keep enemy shinobi from finding their campsite if needed be. This was a good thing that the little fox was not there. It was not that Naruto did not love his little fox friend to death; it was just that he did not want Kyuubi to worry about him. He did not want the fox to see him in pain because of the cursed seal that the snake man had given him. His angel blood within him was battling against the cursed seal, but it was not helping him that much.

It was because he was pushing his body to its limit and not giving it rest like he needed that the boy was hurting himself even more. The black flame like designs coming from the cursed seal was winning against his tired angel blood. The black flames covered the whole left side of his body; even part of his face was covered with the flames. However, instead of the lower part of his left arm being covered with a black flame, it was covered in a white flame. Yet the white flames should have been more in number, it was his angel blood battling against the cursed seal after all. And it was losing.

Naruto knew neither how much longer he could keep the cursed seal at bay nor how much longer he could stay awake, but he as sure as hell would not give up. He would not let his teammates down like that. He would fight whatever was thrown his way and if it meant hurting himself while doing so, then he would do it. He did not care what happened to him, he just did not want anyone close to him get hurt, which was the reason why he always throws himself in harms way to protect others from anything that they could cause them harm.

Looking up, Naruto noticed that in only a little while it would be dawn and smiled. Dawn was always one of his favorite times of day since it represented new beginnings and new beginnings brought new hope. New hope was always a good thing that is what made him smile. However, his smile soon faltered when the cursed seal gave a surge of power, trying to overpower his angel blood, and causing him greater pain. Wincing, the blond grabbed his shoulder and waited out the pain. Once it was over, Naruto gave a sigh of relief and began waiting once again for his teammates to awaken.

* * *

It was hazy when he began waking up and he really could not comprehend what was going on around him. However, what he did realize was that he was not in his bed but on the hard ground with a killer headache. He heard a few buzzing noises and identified them as voices but he could not make out their words because of the buzzing in his ears. Without opening his eyes, Sasuke tried to remember what had happened before hand. He remembered going to the Academy to partake in the Chunnin Exams and remembered meeting up with Sakura. He also remembered the two of them looked for their missing blond teammate together, but they could not find him in time for the Chunnin Exam and they had to start without him. It was before the second part of the Chunnin Exams officially began; that they -Sakura and him- learned that their missing teammate was already inside the Forest of Death and had already started the second portion of the exams. 

After that, everything seemed to be in a blur. Them being attacked by a fake Naruto. A large snake coming after him and Sakura. Sakura being knocked unconscious and him having to protect her from an even larger snake that the enemy shinobi summoned. Then power, unlike anything he ever felt before, was surging through him. Him fighting the Grass shinobi with renewed strength only to fail, and then…and then…

"Naruto!!" a high pitch voice, unknown to Sasuke, yelped as the Uchiha bolted up right, the cold clothe pressed up against his head falling down as he did so, remembering that Naruto had jumped in front of him protecting him from Orochimaru right before he fell unconscious. Looking around, the raven spotted the boy hunched over a few feet away from him with his back turned away and a hand clenching his left shoulder tightly. Kyuubi was in front of the blond, frantically moving about, trying to find out what was wrong with his master while Sakura was laid unconsciously besides him. Other than that, there was no one else around them, which only made Sasuke wonder who it was that called out the blond's name. However, the raven was more concerned about the blond's pain more than who had spoken just a few seconds ago. 

Sasuke was not only concerned for the fact that it was him that Naruto had been trying to save when he had been wounded, but also because he genuinely cared for the boy. He wanted to help the Naruto, not because he was the one that saved him, but because Naruto was Naruto. Someone who had seen passed his looks and family name to see who he really was. To see that he was his own person and not just an Uchiha. He was Sasuke.

Scrabbling to his feet, Sasuke hurriedly got to his feet and made his way over to Naruto to help him in anyway he could. However, Naruto seem to hear him coming and looked up over towards the approaching Uchiha, but ended up startling the raven. For what Sasuke saw when the blond turned towards him made his stomach drop. The blond's right hand was still holding his left shoulder and looked to be fine, but the whole left side of his was a different matter all together. His left arm, which was resting limply in his lap, from what he could see of the parts of it not protected by his armor was covered with black flames at the top and white around his wrist. Naruto's face was a little more than half way covered with the same black flame. But what scared the Uchiha the most and made his mouth run dry was that the blond's left eye was not its unique blue color but a sickening yellow color with a pool of pitch black surrounding it.

"Naruto?" the raven whispered out, unsure of himself and what was going on. He did not know what to do and, truth be told; the way Naruto looked scared him, especially when the blond looked him right in the eyes. His blond teammate most have felt his uncertainties and smiled one of his best smiles as if to reassure Sasuke. It might have been one of the blond's best smile, one of which cause him to close his eyes and tilt his head to the side, but Sasuke knew it was not a _true_ smile since there was not any _real _emotion behind it. It was a smile to reassure others of his well-being, but it did not hold any happiness, joy, or anything else like that in it and that was what Sasuke needed to see the most to know that the blond was all right.

"Sasuke, you're alright," the blond stated as cheerfully as he could muster through all of the pain he was in. "I'm glade," Naruto said happily, opening his eyes to show that he was truly happy with the happiness swimming around in his eyes.

"Naruto," Sasuke breathed out in relief see that the blond was still his normal self even though the seal placed upon him was trying to take over. Being reassured because of the blond's happiness, the Uchiha moved forward closer to him teammate to help him in anyway that he could. However, as he moved forward, the blond's eyes widened before rolling back into his head and his body falling limply backwards. "_Naruto!!_" Sasuke exclaimed, his own eyes widening as well as he saw Naruto fall to the ground.

Vaguely the Uchiha heard the same voice as before shout out the blond's name, but he was not paying attention to anything else around him at the moment other than Naruto. Rushing over to the boy's side, Sasuke pulled the blond up into his lap and rested most of the boy's body in his left arm as he checked him over for any injuries. Not finding anything, but the puncture holes in the left junction of his neck in the black turtleneck he wore, Sasuke carefully pulled the collar of the shirt back. Upon seeing the revealed flesh, the raven hissed out his anger and sympathy.

On the inside of Naruto's neck, near the front, the skin was raw and pink. Dried blood was caked around the wound and flaking off, but what really caught the Uchiha's attention was the three tomoes that looked oddly like the tomoes of his sharingan in a circle around the bite mark. Coming from the black glowing bite mark was the black flames that seem to be engulfing Naruto's body.

"Snake," a growl came from Sasuke's right, causing the Uchiha to whip his head in that direction thinking someone had found their camp and came to take their scroll. However, all he saw was a bristled Kyuubi glaring at the tomoes on his master's neck growling slightly. The fox's eyes seemed to flicker from their golden color to a bloody red as his growling got more intense. 

Sasuke's eyes widened in shock. "You can _talk?_" Sasuke directed at the fox, not believing that he just heard a fox, Naruto's pet fox, talk.

Snapping his head up to look at the raven, Kyuubi's eyes reverted back to their normal golden color as his eyes widened as well._ "You can **understand **me?"_

* * *

I hope everyone likes this chapter, I worked really hard on it and it was really difficult to write. So I hope it is satisfactory as well as well written, 'cause I don't think I can do anymore to this chapter. Thanks again for the reviews. 

Shi no Tenshi


	19. Oto Shinobi Attack!

Hi fellow readers!

I'm _**Foxeskit**_! I'm another reader and a friend of **_Shi no Tenshi 902, _**who couldn't update, for her life seemingly is falling apart at the moment. She's been an emotional wreck lately and she hasn't had time to write anything. Her family life is falling down around her and she trying to keep up with school while all this is happening, but isn't doing so good. So to cheer her up as best as I could, I picked up her notebook with the story outline in it and typed it up for her. However, if there are some patches of writing that doesn't seem like Shi's writing, that is because it isn't and I did the best i could, but I'm not the best writer in the world...

So yea, that's everything, just read and be happy, for even I don't know when the next update is coming. I typed up all of what Shi had written and she probably won't be writing soon.

* * *

Dumbly, Sasuke nodded his head to answer the fox's question. He could not quite find the words to speak in order to answer the fox. Actually, he could not believe that he was even having to answer a fox. Naruto's fox no less. If he had not known of the Inuzukas' abilities to communicate with their dog, then Sasuke would have thought this was totally absurd. After all, having a conversation with a fox was not an everyday experience.

"If you can understand me that means that you've unlocked your heritage!" Kyuubi spoke, snapping Sasuke out of the daze he had put himself into. _"Which means that you were true to yourself."_

"What?" Sasuke asked the fox, confused what he was rambling on about. Yet, for some reason he thought he had heard what Kyuubi was saying somewhere else before. He just could not quite remember where he had heard it before. It was almost like a fleeting dream that one wanted to remember, but could not quite grasp it.

Shaking his head, Kyuubi looked over at his master in the raven's arms. _"Never mind. Right now, we have more important things to deal with. Like helping the kit."_

"Kit?" the raven hair said unsure of what the fox wanted.

"Naruto," Kyuubi said rolling his eyes at the raven for not knowing that Naruto was the kit he was talking about. It was not like there was any other Heir of Foxes anywhere near them. There was not any other Heir of Foxes period.

* * *

It was early morning when she started to wake up. The birds were chirping and a fresh cool breeze blew over her skin, pulling her further away from the dream world and into reality. Groan a bit from the stiffness of her muscles, Sakura slowly opened her eyes to the awaiting day. The first thing she noticed when she woke up was that she was under a tree with roots surrounding her like a protective barrier. Having to blink a few times to remember how she got under the rather large tree in the first place, the pink haired girl looked around confusedly.

Suddenly the cherry blossom bolted up right, remembering at last what had happened. When she felt a dull sense of pain coming from her arm, Sakura immediately grabbed hold of the appendage, but encounter skin. Knowing that she should have felt skin, Sakura looked down to see that her arm was wrapped up, rather hazardously but wrapped all the same. In fact, all of her wound had been treated and cleaned up, sure, they were not wrapped properly, but in the circumstances, they were wrapped pretty well.

Not knowing if she was in enemy territory being held captive or not, though she highly doubted it since her wounds had been treated, Sakura looked around her. Her eyes scanned the area looking for any signs of where exactly she was and who she was with, something that Rin had taught her to do in situations like this. Rin had taught her to be calm, collect, and ready for anything when dealing with things like this. She had to be prepared for anything. However, anything did not include seeing her youngest teammate lying a few feet away from her with his eyes scrunched together and his teeth grinding against one another in pain. Even his blond hair did not look to be normal, being plastered to his face from the sweat pouring down his face.

"Naruto," Sakura breathed out, before scrabbling up and crawling her way over to the blond. Coming right up to the side of the blond, the cherry blossom sat on her legs and leaned over to get a good look at the boy. Running her hand over Naruto's forehead to brush away his sweat soaked face, Sakura cringed at the sight. The younger boy's left side was cover in some kind of strange flame like tattoo that was looked to be moving under his skin. It was obvious that the boy was in pain judging by the way that he was cringing even while asleep.

"Shōsen Jutsu," Sakura whispered softly under her breath. Feeling the chakra surge in her hand, the young med-nin in training started to heal all the wounds she could see, which were only cut and scraps. Yet, that was all she could do for her teammate because she did not know what she else should do for him. She did not know what was wrong with him in the first place, which meant she could not treat him. All she could do as a med-nin was heal minor wounds and heal slight colds. Nothing major like what Naruto seemed to be going through.

Although, even with the little help, it seem to help the blond, though it was just in the slightest of ways. His face seemed to relax some and the pain lessoned on his face. The black flames on his face started to dance around more furiously as white flames started to engulf them. Both the white and black flames then started to recede. Watching in slight fascination as the bicolor flames danced together while falling back from the blond's face, the cherry blossom's eyes followed the flames down Naruto's neck only to be obstructed by the black shirt he was wearing. However, her eyes quickly focused in on the small jade stone on a necklace around Naruto's neck.

For some reason it looked familiar to her, but she could not place where she had seen it before. It did not matter though, what mattered now was that her other teammate was missing. She had not even seen Kyuubi come to think of it. Pushing herself up off the ground, Sakura made herself familiar with her surroundings while looking for her other teammate and Kyuubi. She was only halfway acquainted with her new surroundings when a rustle from a tree branch nearest to the sleeping Naruto caught her attention. Sakura turned around swiftly with her kunai already drawn, only to find Sasuke walking into the clearing with a few roasted fish skewered on a stick in his hands. At his heels was Kyuubi with a Konoha hitai-ate in his mouth.

Naruto's hitai-ate.

"Sasuke," the pink haired girl breathed out with a sigh of relief while she put her kunai away, looking her raven-haired teammate over to see how he faired. She noticed a few cuts that had been clean up and treated on his face and a few bruises here and there. She really could not see the true extent of the damage done because of the Uchiha's new clothing, but by the way he was walking, she say he was in pretty good shape, all things considered.

Upon hearing his named being called out, Sasuke looked towards the voice only to find that it was Sakura that was now awake. Seeing how no harm had come to either her or Naruto during the time he was gone gave Sasuke a sense of security. The Uchiha, after having an argument with Kyuubi on leaving Naruto and Sakura alone while they were gone, had gone out to get his teammate some fresh food that they would very well need when they woke up. Along the way to the river -the one that Anko had mention that ran through the forest- Sasuke and Kyuubi had come across the remains of what looked to have once been a snake. Before it had been blown to bits that is. Sasuke was going to just pass by it as if it were nothing, but Kyuubi had gone sniffing through the remains only to uncover a Leaf headband, of which belonged to Naruto.

Seeing that the Uchiha was looking at him strangely, the little red fox elaborated that Naruto had lost his hitai-ate when trying to fight off a large snake while trying to get to Sasuke and Sakura in time. The kitsune did not say anything else about how the once snake creature ended up as piles of flesh and blood. The fox did not think Sasuke needed to know that the snake had actually succeeded in eating Naruto only for the blond to blow it up from the inside out. Much to Kyuubi's pleasure, Sasuke decided not to ask anymore question on what had transpired before hand and continued on to the stream.

"Sakura, you're up," Sasuke stated upon seeing his female teammate was up and about. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I was hit by a two ton Doton no Jutsu," Sakura said with a slight smile to lighten up the mood. Nevertheless, what she said was not entirely true. She did feel weak and soar all over as well as the fact that her chakra reserves were almost depleted and by the looks of things, so were the other members of Team 7. But, she had enough chakra to do a little more healing. With all of them feeling, as if they were and have their chakra reserves down to their minimum this early on in the exam, Sakura knew that trouble would come their way. They needed to find an Earth Scroll and get to the main tower as soon as possible so that they could all see a real med-nin. "How about you?"

"About the same, if not worse," Sasuke admitted truthfully wincing slightly when he thought about his pain. The only time it really hurt him was when he thought about it, since he pushed his pain to the back of his mind. He really did not want to think about it, there were more important matters at hand and even if he was hurt, his mind needed to be elsewhere.

The two lapsed into a short bout of silence and the only noise that was heard other than from the forest around them was Kyuubi's soft paws lightly hitting the ground as he trotted over to Naruto's side. Walking over to Sakura, Sasuke handed her one of the fishes before giving one to Kyuubi -who had come up to sit at his side after depositing the hitai-ate next to Naruto- and taking one for himself. Sitting down, the Uchiha stuck the stick in the ground keeping the last fish for Naruto off the ground before he started eating his own fish. Sitting down across from Sasuke, Sakura followed his example and started eating her fish. Whilst she was eating, the cherry blossom watched as Kyuubi slowly ate the fish given to him, not like his usual energetic self. However, by the way the fox's eye keep diverting over to Naruto's limp body, she had to guess it was because of the way Naruto was.

"What happened?" Sakura asked, after finishing her fish, finally breaking the silence.

Finishing his own fish, Sasuke looked up and over at Naruto with a guilty look on his face. Seeing that, Sakura knew that it was going to be bad and she was right. Sasuke told her, in great detail from his point of view, on what happened after she was knocked unconscious. However, Sasuke just happened to leave out the part about the voices he had heard, because he himself did not understand what had happened. Sakura was very interested in how he had fair up against Orochimaru, but was more interested on how the Uzumaki had save Sasuke. Nonetheless, she had to worry about the boy's safety and health when Sasuke began to explain how he had woken up and found the boy covered in flames and how he looked to be on the verge of death.

Sasuke was going too continued onwards when Kyuubi's voice cut through the air. Yet to Sakura it sounded like ordinary yelps and growls coming form a fox where the Uchiha could actually hear words as if it was another human talking.

"We've got company and not the friendly kind either. They're not going to be easy either, I can tell," Kyuubi barked out, instantly on his feet and hackles rose, growling threateningly. Kyuubi could feel his own chakra threatening to break out of his control, something that was not a good thing. If that did happen, his demonic chakra would definitely be recognized and he would have some explaining to do. That or he might accidentally transform into another one of his fox forms. Something that he did not want to have to happen, but if it came down to it, the kitsune would rather reveal himself as a demon then let Naruto die. 

Jumping up, Sasuke quickly pulled his katana out of his sheath and pointed himself in the direction Kyuubi had sensed where the enemies were. Sakura, knowing that her teammate had to be on guard for some sensible reason, did the same thing. Grasping a few kunai in her hand, Sakura focused her green eyes into the direction of the forest that her teammate and the growling fox were looking towards preparing herself for the fight that was sure to come. Even if she was tired, the cherry blossom knew that they could not flee at their given time. They were to worn-out from their fight with Orochimaru and would not be able to out run their pursuers while carrying Naruto as well. That only left them with the options to either fight or flee without Naruto and the second option was not an option to them. They would not leave their teammate behind.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here? A bunch of frail fallen leaves that need to be disposed of," an unfamiliar voice spoke up from above them.

Following the voice, but not lowering their weapons, Sakura and Sasuke found themselves looking at three ninjas with a well known symbol on their hitai-ate. A symbol that Sasuke really loathed to see at the moment or anytime in fact. It was the symbol that Orochimaru wore. It was the symbol of Sound.

The first person they saw was most likely the leader of the group judging by the way the other two stood behind him waiting for orders. The guy of the group was covered in bandages and his hitai-ate was tilted to cover his right eye so that only his left black eye was showing. The second boy had black eyes and black hair that stood up to the side. He seemed to be more of the type ready to fight judging by his grin and the way his body twitched. The last member of their team was a girl, also with black hair and black eyes, but her hair almost reached the ground. Her eyes were narrowed and she did not look pleased to be there.

Not falling for the guy's taunts, Sasuke took a step forward so that he was standing in front of his teammate blocking them from harms way. "We know that Orochimaru is the one pulling all the springs, so what do you want?"

"We also want to know what is up with that thing Orochimaru placed upon our teammate's neck!" Sakura spoke up in anger.

Hearing that the boy before them knew that it was Orochimaru that was pulling all the strings seemed to have put all of the Sound ninjas in a temporary shock. They did not think that they would know whom it was pulling the strings. They were not _supposed _to know. The Konoha shinobi were supposed to be keeping in the dark to make it easier on them. All they had to do was fight the Uchiha boy while he was down and seriously injured after his fight with their master. At least that was how everything was planed out.

"Hmm, I wonder what Orochimaru-sama is up to?" the leader of the group mumbled loud enough for the others to hear. "Orochimaru-sama just told us to fight the one he placed the cursed seal upon, _Uchiha Sasuke!_"

Hearing that it was Sasuke that was to be the one that was intended for the cursed seal and not Naruto, once again reminded Sasuke of how the blond boy took the attack for him again. It was something that he did not want to remember, but it was something that he knew he always would. It also brought the rage in Sasuke back, which brought forth his newly changed sharingan. Growling, the Uchiha gripped his katana in a more firmly gripped and slide his feet into a more battle ready stance that guarded his whole body better.

"Oh, you'll get to fight alright," the raven growled out his sharingan spinning wildly telling the Sound nins about who he was. "But rested assure, I'm not the one that has this cursed seal you talk of on me. Your _Orochimaru-sama_ made a mistake when placing his seal."

"That's it," the second boy said taking a step forward, "I can't walk away after hearing that! I'll destroy you!"

"Zaku! Don't!" the leader of the group tried to stop his teammate, but it was too late. His teammate, Zaku, was already charging at the Uchiha and throws two handfuls of shuriken at the raven. He was surprised when the raven seemed to deflect all of the shurikens effortlessly. The shurikens just made a clinging noise when they met the metal of the katana.

Sighing since Zaku did not listen to him, Dosu, the leader of the Sound nins, turned to Kin, the only female of the team, to say something to her, but found that she was already in a fight herself with the pink haired girl. Seeing that there was no other way about it, Dosu joined the fight with the Uchiha thinking that Kin would be all right taking care of the weak pink haired genin.

However, the fights were fair from being on the fair side. Sasuke and Sakura were both still tired from their fight and the Oto nins were fresh and ready to fight. It was no wonder that the two Konoha nins were being overpowered. It did not help that Sasuke was draining his already small chakra reserve quickly because of using his new sharingan. It also did not help that it was two against one. So it was no surprised when Sasuke and Sakura were backed in a corner rather quickly. Both of them breathing rather hard and sweat was already pouring down their faces.

"And you were telling me not to, Dosu. Ha! These genin are still green. I don't see why Orochimaru-sama would want to have either of them. There's nothing special about them," Zaku spoke, barely even winded from the fight. He looked disappointedly at the two down Leaf nins in front of him. Both were on their knees breathing hard but not letting them any closer to them as they were. Sasuke was even using his katana to lean onto to support his weight, his sharingan already deactivated.

"I hate to say this, but Zaku's right, Dosu, they're a bunch of weaklings," Kin agreed reluctantly with her always ready to fight teammate as she sent a glare towards Sakura since she actually had a few good hits in during their fight. "I'd say we kill them. After all, Orochimaru-sama never said anything about not kill them, he just told us to fight Sasuke to the end and death is the ultimate end."

Dosu seemed to be seriously thinking about his teammates proposition. During that time, Sasuke and Sakura eyed the three surrounding them trying to find a miracle to get themselves and Naruto out of there alive. They could not think of even one way that would get them out of this even if that they were at their full capability. There was nothing they could do and they were about to give up hope when a groan came from their sleeping teammate. Hearing the groan, all the eyes turned towards Naruto to see once again that the black flames were covering his body and sweat was trailing down his face.

Upon laying eyes upon Naruto, Dosu seemed to come to a decision with a rather wicked smile on his face. "Orochimaru-sama wants something to do with the Uchiha, he wouldn't care about his teammates. I'd say kill them. Starting with him," the bandaged covered boy said pointing to the panting blond. "Zaku, you can take care of the blond while me and Kin watch over these two."

"My pleasure," Zaku replied cracking his knuckles and made his way towards Naruto. Holding up his right hand so his palm was facing towards the defenseless blond, Zaku gathered chakra into the air tubes built into the palms of his hands. Smiling viciously, the Oto nin prepared the only attack he needed to dispose of the unconscious boy with. "Say goodbye to your friend, you won't be seeing him again. Alive that is."

"_Zankūha._"

"NO!" Sakura and Sasuke shouted at the same time trying to make a break for it and help Naruto. However, the other two Oto nin keep them from doing so. Kin had pinned Sakura to the ground and keep her there by holding the girl's hands behind her back and sitting on her back using her own weight to hold her down. Dosu had thrown Sasuke back into a tree while his katana had been thrown in a different direction a couple of feet away from him. Both could only watch in horror as Naruto laid there defenseless.

"_Konoha Shōfū_."

Dirt and dust was thrown up in every direction obstructing their view. Zaku laughed with untold glee at finally being able to kill something, not caring that he had just taken a life of another living thing. However, Sakura and Sasuke cared. They cared that the boy had just killed their teammate. They stared in shock, tears were welling up in Sakura's eyes while Sasuke could not seem to bring himself to do anything. It was too surreal. Nevertheless, as the dust and dirt started to settle, a silhouette was seen standing in front of Naruto in a defense stance.

"Picking on an injured shinobi, you have no honor," Lee said when the dusted had finally settled.

"Wh-who are you…? Where did you come from?" asked Dosu surprised that someone had defected Zaku's attack. It was impossible, yet upon seeing the chips of wood around the green spandex wearing boy, the Sound nin understood how he had done it. The boy had some used a giant tree branch to take the attack for them, causing it to shatter to pieces while they themselves stayed unharmed.

"I am Konoha's Green Beast, Rock Lee!" Lee introduced to himself the Sound nin. "I came because Sakura-chan needed me and I always will come where I am needed… Actually, my little friend here showed me the way."

Jumping from out behind Lee, Kyuubi perched himself on the boy's left should, growling threateningly. Smiling lightly, Lee picked Kyuubi up off his shoulder gentle, before setting him down on the ground and pushing him towards the side. The kitsune looked at Lee curiously before giving a yelp trying to get back in front of the boy and fight as well. However, the Green Beast of Konoha just lightly pushed the kitsune away again and Kyuubi finally gave up before running over to the once again flame covered Naruto to check on him.

"You're here to save me?" Sakura asked surprised, yet Kin shoved her further into the ground upon hearing the girl talk as if she was out of danger. A slight grunt came out of the girl as she hit the ground, yet a growl of annoyance also came from her as well.

"I promised when we first met to protect you until death due us part," Lee stated determinedly, "and I intend to keep that promise."

"I see, so it can't be helped," Dosu said pulling out their Earth Scroll and throwing it to Zaku without a care in the world. "Kin, Zaku, take care of the girl and the boy, kill Sasuke as well, Orochimaru-sama be damned. I'll take care of the annoyance."

"They're as good as dead," Kin replied, pulling a kunai out of her shuriken holster and spinning it around her finger before putting it to the pink haired girl's neck.

Upon seeing the love of his life was in danger, Lee disregarded Dosu and punched the ground with all of his might. The result was his arm diving into the ground up to his elbow, yet he found what he was looking for. Gripping tightly a hold of it, Lee pulled what he had grabbed out of the ground and towards him. The giant root, which was what Lee had grabbed a hold of, came up with ease, at least for Lee, and shifted the whole ground underneath them. More specifically, shifted the ground from underneath Kin and Sakura.

Being thrown off balance, Kin released her hold on Sakura to regain her balance. In her confusion, Kin did not realize that she had unintentionally freed Sakura's hands and with her hands freed, Sakura could escape. And escape she did, only the girl did it in the most painful way possible for Kin. It was in that way that Kin learned, the hard way, to never underestimate her opponent.

"Magen: Kokoni Arazu no Jutsu." With those simple words, Kin was trapped in a winter horror land, fighting against the elements. Moreover, she was not winning either. However, that was all Sakura could do, here chakra supply was exhausted and she could not do anymore. Shakily, Sakura made her way over to Sasuke who was still crumpled up against the tree, already exhausted his own chakra supply and could not do much of anything. Along the way, the girl picked up Sasuke's katana and dragged it over to the boy. Crumpling up against the tree as well, Sakura looked over Sasuke seeing his pained filled face.

Looking down at his body, Sakura found out why the raven was in pain. A branch was impaled in his left shoulder and blood was slowly leaking out between the branch and his skin. Seeing that Sasuke needed her help, Sakura dropped the katana and gently checked Sasuke's wound over. Seeing that she had to take the branch out, the pink haired girl carefully grabbed a hold of the branch while apologizing profusely to the boy before pulling the branch out as gently as possible. Once the branch was free from the boy's shoulder, the cherry blossom knew by the looks of it that it needed to be healed right away. Nevertheless, the only way she could do that was release the genjutsu on Kin to reclaim her chakra so she could heal him. Which is exactly what she did, since she was not given any other the choice.

During the time, Sakura was healing Sasuke, Lee had taken to fighting Dosu, but it was not looking good of the young Green Beast of Konoha. Knowing that the shinobi in front of him would not hesitate and kill him and everyone else, Lee knew he had to use the move his sensei had forbidden him from using. He just hoped that the original Green Beast of Konoha would understand is actions later on when he had to tell his sensei why he used the technique when he was told no to. Unwrapping some of the bandages from around his arms some, Lee waited for just the right moment.

When Dosu saw that the kid with the bowl cut hairdo was unwrapping the bandages from his arms, the Sound nin thought the other was distracted and it was the perfect time to charge him. That was his mistake. When Dosu was right on him, Lee crouched down and sent him flying up into the air with a rather impressive kick upwards. As the Oto nin flew up into the air startled and surprised, Lee propelled himself into the air and shadowed the flying body. The freed bandages then wrapped around the Sound nin, keeping him bounded and trapped while the two were descending towards the ground fast.

"Omote Renge."

Seeing that his teammate was in much need of his help, Zaku quickly went through a set of hand seals before slamming his hands into the ground right as the Green Beast of Konoha abandoned Zaku's teammate and let him hit the ground. Seeing that Dosu's feet and lower body were the only things that could be seen since the rest of his body was buried in the ground. However, Dosu did not stay like that for long and pulled himself out of the ground. Seeing that his teammate was unharmed and he was going after the green wearing freak again, Zaku turned his attention elsewhere.

Slowly, Zaku advanced on the unconscious Naruto to finally kill the blond. "No one here to protect you now, they're all preoccupied with their own lives," Zaku laughed roughly pointing his hand once again at Naruto. He was again interrupted from killing the boy. This time by the little red fox that the spandex wearing boy had brought along with him. It was a fight that he thought he would have no trouble winning at all. How wrong he was, for when he tried to simple do away with the fox with a simple, but painful, blast of air from his hands, Zaku was startled to see the fox take it full force without even flinching. Zaku could feel something in the air start to stir when the fox started to growl, but as suddenly as the feeling came it left. Yet the fox was still growling, standing protectively in front of his master.

Realizing that he could take down two birds with one stone if he aimed his attack just right, Zaku slowly brought up his hand before him trying to find the right angle where both the blond and the fox would be taken out with one attack.

"_Zank-_" a kunai sliced his hand open, stopping him once again.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," a female voice said from above. Looking up into the trees, Zaku caught sight of a girl wearing a pink Chinese top and black pants. One her right leg was bandages wrapped tightly around her pants with her shuriken holster over the top of that in the same fashion that many other shinobi wore it in. Brown hair woven up into buns rested on the girls head while brown eyes glared down at him with the intensity that only a woman could hold. The saying 'hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn' quickly fleeted across Zaku's mind when he saw the girl twirling two kunai simultaneously on one figure two different directions without once faltering.

"And why wouldn't I?" Zaku asked the annoying intruder arrogantly.

"You're out numbered and outmatched," the Chinese girl stated pointing to the scene behind him with her unoccupied hand.

Following her finger, Zaku found that what the girl said to be true. His two teammates were cornered and trapped, Dosu had dispose of the giant eyebrow freak it would seem since the boy was lying on the ground obviously in great pain. However, it was not to be celebrated for Dosu himself was now lying on the ground his chakra points closed off and a Hyuuga standing over the top of him ready to attack. His other teammate, Kin, looked to have been about to come upon Sakura healing Sasuke ready to attack when she was attacked herself by a grey haired boy wearing wired glasses and was now being held at pointblank with a kunai.

"Kuso," Zaku cursed, knowing that there was no way that they could pull out without being harmed. They were trapped and unless they wanted to fork over their lives anytime soon, they would not being getting out of it. Turning to look towards Dosu for guidance, since he was the leader, Zaku waited for his leader to tell him what to do. Knowing that his teammates were looking at him for directions, Dosu took the situation into his own hands.

Slowly standing up with the ever so cautious Hyuuga watching him, Dosu tried to bargain with the ninjas around them. "Obviously in our current positions, we have no chance in defeating any of you Konoha shinobi. If you allow us, we shall retreat and not bother any of you until the remainder of this portion of the exam is over."

"And why should we allow you to do such things?" the Hyuuga asked, ready to attack if he made one false move.

Reaching inside his clothing, which caused the Hyuuga to tense even more when he saw the movement, Dosu produced their Earth Scroll. "In return for our lives, we shall gladly give over our scroll. After all, that it is your pass to the next part of the exams."

Seeing that none of the Konoha nins were accepting his proposition, but neither were they denying it, Dosu slowly made his way towards Zaku while limping. After seeing that there were no further attacks, the two then made their way over to Kin who was still being held at pointblank by the grey haired shinobi. However, once they came into range of attack, the genin dropped his hand to the side and stepped away from Kin allowing thing to get to their teammate. Together the three Oto nins made their way out of sight. However, before they left, Dosu looked the grey haired boy in the eyes and say them flash before he nodded his head and they were gone. This whole exchanged went on without anyone else seeing it take place.

Once they were gone, Sakura stood up from her stop where she and Sasuke where at with Sasuke at her side. Not even thinking, Sakura ran over to Lee to check on how he was doing, since she was the whole reason he had come and fought the Sound ninjas. It was a very brave and noble thing he had done for her. But that she still was not going to date him. She had just gotten over he crush on Sasuke after all and wanted to work on her shinobi career more before she started to date.

Once at his side, the cherry blossom with what chakra she had left fixed up the boy's ears and helped the boy to his feet. "Is everyone else alright?"

"I think we're all fine, but the more important question is, how are you all fairing?" the Chinese girl asked walking over to the group that had formed. "More importantly, what happened here?"

Tensing up, Sakura looked towards Sasuke as if mentally asking him what she should do, after all, he was their groups' leader and should be one to make the major choices like this. Seeing his female teammate looking towards him for the answer, Sasuke looked around the group that had come to their rescue. He only knew Lee and Kabuto by name and Lee's teammate the Hyuuga by sight, but he did not know the Chinese girl, which he figured was Lee's other teammate. And to tell the truth, the only person there he had any intention in trusting would be Lee since he had came to their help without having any reason too. The Hyuuga and Chinese girl had only come because their teammate was there and Kabuto, Sasuke did not know why he had come, but he was sure it was not for good reasons.

Knowing that the others deserved some sort of explanation, the Uchiha decided to give them one. Only a very condense version.

* * *

Sasuke was on edge. He was tense and ready for anything to come his way. Every little thing caused his body to jerk and tense up even more even if it was not anything at all to be worried about. He could not help it; he just could not stop the memories from replaying over and over in his head. It was as if he was living it again. He could still hear the blond's scream ringing out in his head. A scream that was full of pain and was because of him. If he was only stronger he would not have needed Naruto to save him, he could have taken care of the snake on his own. He just could not quiet his mind.

It had been a little over nine hours since the whole Sound thing had ended and they were just really getting settled. Both him and Sakura had regained some of their chakra back and could defend themselves better, which was probably why Lee finally listened to his teammates and left Team 7 to fend for themselves. However, unlike Lee and his team, Kabuto had decided to stay with them to help them, or at least that was his excuse he gave. Sasuke still did not trust him. But what really had the Uchiha on edge was the fact that Naruto had yet to wake up and the flame like designs had been coming and going since after the battle with the Oto nins and he seemed to be in more pain with each passing episode.

"Sasuke?" Sakura's hesitant voice called out to the boy that was currently sitting by Naruto watching over him in deep thought. Upon hearing her voice though, the raven snapped his head towards her direction, tense and jumpy, but when he saw it was her, he looked up at her questioningly. "What's the matter? You're even more tense and jumpier than ever and I know it doesn't have anything to do with the whole Sound thing. So what's up?"

"I don't trust him," the Uchiha said not moving from his position but glaring towards where Kabuto had gone off to find them some food at Sasuke's request.

Following his glare, the cherry blossom, understood whom he was talking about, turned back towards her teammate with a small frown on her face. "I don't trust him either; there is something off about the way he's acting. He had no reason to help us nor does he have a reason to stick around here and help us out. At first, I thought it was just because he wanted the Earth Scroll, but since we gave it to Lee's team and he still stuck around, I'm not really sure. What should we do about it?"

"For now, we'll just watch him, there is nothing else we can do," the Uchiha sighed, while looking over to Naruto to empathizing the point why they could not do anything.

Knowing that he was right, Sakura nodded her head knowing fully well what he meant. They could not do anything while Naruto was like this. If something went down, as it did before, they would probably end up in the same situation as before and they could not risk it again. It did not help that the Uzumaki was covered even more in the black flames than before. They still did not know what the flames were, but by the pained look on the blond's face when the flames were spreading, they knew it was not good. Kyuubi had neither left the blond's side nor had he made one sound since Kabuto had arrived.

At the moment, Naruto was not covered in the flames, neither the white nor black, and seemed to be slumbering peacefully for the first time in the last hour. His breathing was regular and there was no sign of fever at all. However, there were also no signs of the blond waking anytime soon. He just lay there, sleeping and the only sign of movement was the raise and fall of his chest as he breathed. It just seemed that the blond was the center always at the center of problems. Him always being the one to get hurt, it just did not seem fair to the blond. What did he ever do to deserve everything that was thrown at him?

A groan brought the attention back to Naruto as his eyelashes started to flutter. Finally, with some effort and time, the blond's eyelashes flickered open and two unique blue eyes were seen slightly glazed but still aware of his surroundings. After the fogginess left the blond's eyes, the Pure One turned his head to the side and looked straight towards them. His eyes finally set on Sasuke's wide astonished ones and a smile spread across his face. Pushing himself up off the ground, Naruto sat himself up right, all the while smiling.

"Are you guys alright?" were the first words out of Naruto's mouth. Something that did not surprise Kyuubi, since the blond was always thinking about everyone else before himself. Yet, that was what made Naruto the Pure One he was and Kyuubi would not have him any other way. Jumping in the boy's lap, the little fox made himself comfortable and started to purr to show the boy that he cared and was worried about him.

"We're fine, but the more important question is how are you feeling?" Sakura asked trying to hold back a sob, knowing that her teammate was okay now. She did not know the exact detail that had went on when she had been knocked out, but what she did know was that Naruto had taken an attack for Sasuke, saving him from the seal that he now sported on his neck.

"I'm okay," the Uzumaki told his teammates cheerfully with his eyes closed and they seemed to buy it. But Kyuubi knew better. It was not just because of his connection with Naruto that he could tell the blond was laying; it was also because Naruto was not looking at his teammates. It was an obvious sign that he was lying and Kyuubi would not have that.

"Lair! You're lying and I can tell!" the kitsune barked, glaring up at the boy. 

Naruto just looked down at the fox, which had stopped purring and was now glaring up at him, and smiled guiltily at the fox about lying to his teammates. Naruto was just glade that no one other than him could understand his canine companion except for him, or else he would have to explain why he was lying. However, the blond did not know that Sasuke could now understand Kyuubi as well, so he did not see the raven-haired boy's narrow. He did not like the fact that Naruto had lied to him, even if he had a good reason like not wanting to worry them while the were in the middle of the test.

"Nice try Naruto, but this the truth if you would," Sasuke said harshly. Seeing the blond flinch, the Uchiha winced a little knowing that he had said cause Naruto some type of harm, but he wanted to know the truth. Looking back and forth between Naruto and Sasuke, Sakura tried to figure out what was going on. She could not comprehend how Sasuke seemed to think Naruto was lying, but judging by the way her blond teammate was now looking any from them with an embarrassed face, she knew that the boy had been lying.

"Naruto?" the cherry blossom asked in a whisper.

"It hurts; my blood feels like it is on fire yet at the same time it feels like it is liquid ice. I feel like I've just completed a hundred mile run and have no energy left even though I know I just woke up. My head is cloudy and foggy as if a veil has been put over it and wouldn't let me think straight. That's how I truly feel," Naruto said looking down as he told them the truth of how he really felt. He did not want to tell them the truth and have the worry over him, but he really did not want to lie to his teammates more than that. He wanted to gain their trust, but that was not something he could do if he did not tell them the truth. "Happy now?"

Cringing at Naruto's sharp attitude -one that they had never heard Naruto use before- and scowling features, Sasuke sighed before answering the blond solemnly as he ran his hand through his raven locks of hair. "No, I'm not, but I felt worse that you didn't trust me, us, enough to tell us the truth."

"Sorry," Naruto apologized, still not looking at the others while his hand absently petted Kyuubi.

"The worm's coming back," Kyuubi yelp when he caught wind of Kabuto's scent. 

Grumbling under his breath, Sasuke sighed knowing that it was not a good idea to talk with the others when Kabuto around and they would have to finish their conversation another time. Knowing for fact that it was Kabuto that was coming through the little fox's own grumblings the _worm _meant Kabuto. It was good timing too, for as soon as they stopped talking Kabuto stumbled into the clearing with some food that looked to be stolen from other participants of the exam. Seeing that Team Seven was all gather in one area and were all awake, Kabuto smiled that smile of his and walked towards them.

"Naruto-kun, I see you are awake," the young boy with hair of an old man greeted the blond. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Fine, I guess," Naruto nodded his head in greeting while Kyuubi growled in his lap and he tried, unsuccessfully, to quiet him down. "Umm, no offense or anything, but _who_ are you exactly?"

Blinking a few times, Kabuto looked at the boy until he remembered he was not supposed to be acquainted with the boy before he smiled a bright, fake, smile. "None taken and as for who I am, you can call me Kabuto."

"Uh-huh, and what are you doing here, Kabuto-san?" the Heir of Foxes asked politely, not showing his distrust for the new comer.

"I was scouting for my team and was on my way to join up with him when I ran into your team in a _little_ trouble," Kabuto said with a fake smile on his face.

"And he just **happened **to be around at that time to help," Kyuubi growled out sarcastically, but Naruto pretended to ignore him in favor of _thanking _Kabuto for his help while he was knocked unconscious. Nonetheless, Sasuke heard every word of the kitsune's grumbling and narrowed his eye at the obvious glasses wearing boy. _"I don't trust him!"_

And Sasuke had to agree with the fox mentally.

* * *

"You know I can walk, right?" Naruto asked Sasuke as the group moved out towards the tower in hopes of finding another team and acquiring their scroll. However, they really did not have to rush, since they had only been out in the Forest of Death for a little over a day and a half. Sadly, for Team 7 -all of whom loathed Kabuto very much and he did not seem to realize that he was the centre of their loathing- Kabuto was still with them.

"Yes I know you can walk," Sasuke said nonchalantly, while he jumped from one branch to another and sticking to the side of a tree with chakra in his feet keeping him there for the split second he was there before moving on.

"Then put me down and let me walk for myself!" Naruto exclaimed from the Uchiha's back. Actually, it was more like the boy pouted. He felt silly being carried around by a boy a little over a year older than he was. He did not mind it when it was one of their sensei or his uncle, but he felt ridicules because they were around the same age. He felt as if it made him seem weak that he was been lugged around. Besides, he felt better now and did not feel as weak as he did before.

"No," was the Uchiha's curt reply, never once faltering in either of his speed nor fluency as the group continued on their way.

"Why not?" the Pure One pouted.

"Because, those flame marks show up when you overexert yourself and we do not need them coming back until we reach the tower," Sakura replied for the raven while making an almost impossible hurdle through a thicket of branches no bigger than three feet in diameter with out hurting neither herself nor Kyuubi. "Then we can have Arashi-sensei look at the seal that the snake freak put on you."

"But-"

"Kit, don't argue!" Kyuubi barked out from the confinements of Sakura's arms, cutting off any excuse Naruto tried to make. 

"Guys, the idea here is not to attract any attention to ourselves and with all the talking you guys are doing you're going to get us caught," Kabuto voice his opinion out to the members of Team 7.

Knowing that he was right, the members of Team 7 quieted down and followed Kabuto towards the tower. Hopefully, they could encounter another team soon so that they could obtain the Earth Scroll and get Naruto help as fast as they could. Around three, or maybe four, in the afternoon, the group could finally make out the tower in the distance. It was when they saw the tower that Sakura and Sasuke both seemed to pick up their paces some, having their spirits lifted when they could finally say the tower. It was because of their new speeds that they passed the grey haired boy and did not see the smirk on his face.

So far, Kabuto's plan had gone as intended. Even though the members of Team 7 did not seem to trust him in the least like he wanted, it was still going according to plan. He had successfully infiltrated their little team under the guise of helping them out in battle against the Oto Nins and collected data on each member from observation that would go to his master, Orochimaru. Now, all he had to do was lead the around in circles for a little bit, using genjutsu to fool them, and tired everyone out. Once that was accomplished, the Rain nin under Orochimaru's and his control would them ambush _them_ and he could gather more information about Sakura and Sasuke's combat styles. Naruto was another matter.

He already had all the information on the blond that he needed, but it was not likely they would be needing it anyways. Judging by the way the blond was reacting with the cursed seal; he would not be alive much longer, even if he did have the Hokage's help. Kabuto knew for a fact that the Yellow Flash had not found away to remove his master's cursed seals yet and had to smirk knowing that his master was truly a genius. It was such a shame that the Leaf had not realized what a genius Orochimaru was sooner and made him the Hokage instead of the blond idiot Kazama.

Feeling like now was the time to set up his genjutsu, Kabuto discreetly made a few hand seals without the knowledge of the others and wove the illusion around them. It was just a simple illusion really, one that deceived one's depth perception and their general sense of direction. It allowed him to lead the group around in circles while the genin thought that they were still headed towards the tower, no all the wiser. It was simple, it was easy, and it was perfect.

"Guys?" Sakura whispered out only loud enough for her team and Kabuto to hear her. Turning in the cherry blossom's direction, the boys found that she had stopped a few branches back and was just standing there. Kyuubi was still tucked safely in her arms and the light breeze blew Sakura's braided hair slightly, but her face was turned towards the side looking at something that was not there. Something that was not there and should have been there to be more perceives.

"What is it Sakura?" Sasuke asked, knowing from his earlier time in the Forest of Death that Sakura had improved a lot and knew to trust her abilities.

"We're being followed," the girl said as she closed her eyes and seemed to concentrate on something.

Feeling like his plan had been threatened, Kabuto quickly expanded his senses in order to find who it was that had ruined his plan. However, he could not find a thing, not even a threatening animal's presence. There was nothing around them that would threaten his plan, so what was the girl talking about? "Are you sure? I don't feel anyone's presence around us. You're just probably a little paranoid."

Sakura snapped her head towards Kabuto while glaring, something that she had picked up from her raven-haired teammate, at him with all her worth. And it was not something to be taken lightly either. "I'm _not_ being paranoid!" Sakura hissed out. "I _never_ said that I felt anyone's presence! I just said we were being _followed_! There's a difference!"

"Wha-?!" the worm said, a little freaked out of her change of attitude. This was something he did not have any knowledge about in any of the information he had gathered on her. The girl was supposed to be a love-sick-girl in love with the Uchiha and could not do a thing for herself. She was supposed to be kind and compassionate while she seemed shy at times around Sasuke. She was not supposed to be snappy and ready to kill him at a moments notice as she was now. "I'm afraid I don't understand. If you didn't feel anyone's presence then how do you know we are being followed?"

"Genjutsu."

"Huh?" Kabuto asked unintelligently, feeling a little panicky that she had to mention _genjutsu_.

Rolling her eyes, Sakura elaborated for genin seven years her senior since Sasuke and Naruto both seemed to understand what she meant by the looks on their faces. Hell, even Kyuubi seemed to understand her and he was a fox for Kami-sama's sake! "It's quiet simple really, we have been surrounded by a genjutsu to either throw us off course or to tire us out and attack when we cannot defend ourselves." To further prove her point, Sakura undid the genjutsu and the tower in front of them disappeared only to reappear in the area that she had been looking off towards earlier. "See?"

Oh he saw all right. Kabuto saw that his carefully thought out plan had just been destroyed with nothing more then a simple hand seal and a 'kai' that took hours of hard work and labor with the single word. It also showed him that he had not gathered enough information on one Haruno Sakura. She was not anything like she had been from the information he had obtained of the girl since her mission back from Wave Country. However, what Kabuto did not realize was that _all_ of his information concerning Team 7 was wrong, thanks to one tricky mortal Tenshi that just happened to be the Heir of Foxes as well.

* * *

It had taken him awhile, but Kabuto had finally come up with another plan. One that was not far off from the original ideas of the first plan. He had let them head towards the tower without using anymore genjutsu in fear of being caught, letting them wear themselves out that way. All he needed to do was now was wait for the Rain shinobi to do their part and attack them so he could gather more information and for his sake, he really needed it. The only down side to his plan was that they were not in a remote area like he had planned to lead them to, meaning that there might be interference from other shinobi. After all, it was a common unspoken code among the shinobi of Konohagakure that if even a tiny insignificant Leaf was falling from the tree then any Leafs around it would come to the little Leaf's rescue.

Kabuto could only hope that his allies would come soon. By the way, that Sasuke keep glancing back at him whenever he would look around hoping to catch sight of the Rain nins and scowl, he was sure to know something was up. It was dusk now and they should have already attacked since they were now walking instead of jumping from tree to tree. It was obvious they were in the early stages of being exhausted since Sasuke had finally let Naruto walk and Sakura had put the small fox kit on the ground to walk by his master as well. It was the perfect time to attack, so the question was, where were the Rain nins?

"Company comes with two delights, the rain never smelled so sour at night. But do not fret; it is just the worm's failing last chance. Let the rain take its natural course, for it is not for the worse."

Shifting his head, Naruto stopped and listened to the message the wind whispered to him. He would never get why at times the wind could be so cryptic and other times straightforward, but he guessed that it was because it was like him in a way. He held some many secrets that the world was better off not knowing and could live without that he seemed cryptic at times when he was trying to keep them just that, secrets. Yet, at other times, he was straightforward and wore his emotions on the sleeve of his shirt. It was just the way he was.

"Naruto?" Sakura called out to the boy, noticing that he was no longer following them and thinking it had some thing to do with the flames hurting him again. The others stood at her side wondering the same thing, minus Kabuto wondering where the Rain nins were.

"It's nothing Sakura, just a little tired," Naruto told the others with a reassuring grin. Nevertheless, it was not reassuring to his teammates. Looking at one another, Sasuke and Sakura both gave a nod of agreement at their silent agreement. Walking back to their blond teammate, Sakura gently guided Naruto into a sitting position while he protested.

"Sakura, it's alright, I can still go on. We still have good traveling time left in the day," the blond protested, not wanting to be the ones keeping them from going on. "I can go on, really I can."

"Naruto, we're not stopping just because of you. We all needed to rest too," Sasuke said walking over to Sakura and Naruto with Kyuubi by his side after making sure the area they were in was safe to stay in.

"Fine," the Heir of Foxes said to defeat, "but let me help out at least."

It looked like Sasuke was going to agree with the blond, but it was not meant to be. "No."

"Bu-"

"But nothing, you rest, we'll take care of everything," Sakura ordered the blond and did not give the other anytime to respond.

It was a good thing that Sakura made the blond rest, because not even a half an hour latter Naruto was sound asleep with Kyuubi lying by his side. Sakura and Sasuke had eaten some food that Kabuto had that way they did not have to start a fire and give away their position. However, it did seem that Kabuto was a little out of it since they got there; more so then what they had come to know of the guy in the last few hours.

They were just discussing the look out schedule for the nights look out when Kabuto tensed up. "We have company."

And now sooner were the word out of his mouth when the foliage around them started to rustle, sending the others on guard save for Naruto, who was still asleep with Kyuubi by his side. Kabuto watched as they were surrounded by Rain shinobi, all of which were wearing black, not moving or flinching once. He noticed that both Sakura and Sasuke were stiff with worry, they could not take on the number of shinobi that there were without having Naruto fight as well and he could tell they did not want to risk the seal to act up again.

Kabuto did not seem worried at all. The boy was actually happy that his allies finally showed up. All his planning was finally coming together even with the few hitches in the way; everything was working out in the end. A smirk slowly formed on his face and he fell in a fighting stance as to not give away that he was a spy by not helping them.

Kabuto's happiness was short lived. For as soon as he took up a fighting stance the shinobi started to disappear, revealing that they were in fact not real but bunshin and three Rain nins wearing white came hurtling to the group. All knocked unconscious even before impacting the group with enough force to create a decent size crater. All eyes turned towards the direction where the enemy nin originated from.

"Yakuchi-san." one of the two figures said in a monotone voice.

It took all of Kabuto's will power as to not curse aloud, for he knew the very people that had destroyed all hopes of fulfilling his plan.

They were his teammates.

* * *

Hope it was good. 

_**Foxeskit**_ filling in for _**Shi no Tenshi 902**_


	20. They're Back

Thank you for waiting, but the next chapter will have to wait for a while as well. However, since I am feeling better and I had time, I wrote the next part of the story. Hope you all like.

* * *

Team 7 knew that the new shinobi were not enemies, since they had taken care of the Ame nins. However, the fact that they knew Kabuto put a damper on their trust of the two for the simple reason that they knew the older Leaf genin. Yet, there was still the fact that Kabuto did not seem happy to see them, which reversed the effects that the damper had formed. There was the fact they did not call Kabuto by his first name but his last, meaning they did not have the much trust for them, especially with the way the one that spoke said it. The name seemed to be spoken with no emotion present, but there was an undertone of disgust.

The first one stood tall and proud, but also wore an indifferent look. He looked to be older than the members of Team 7 were but younger than Kabuto, around fourteen, fifteen at the most. The teen had tan skin, but not as tan as Naruto's, indicating that he either was outside a lot or he had come from Iwa or Suna. Yet the bright green eyes would exclude him from being from Iwa since all the people of Rock Country had earth tone color eyes and his were bright green with black circles surrounding them.

He his hair was wild and red in color, but it was not very long, just long enough to partially hide the blood red kanji for love on his forehead. The teen wore all regular type ninja clothing consisting of black long pants with a shuriken holster on his right leg and an earth tone sleeveless robe like top. However, the giant gourd, that his hitai-ate was attached to, was not in the least bit regular about it.

The second boy, the one that had spoken, was about the same age as the first one, maybe a little younger by the looks of it. He was crouching on the tree right next to the first, looking just as proud as his partner. The ninja's dark brown hair was held up in a bun with a cloth covering it and two senbon holding the hair and cloth in place. Only his bangs were free of the bun and even then, they were pulled the side and held together near the ends with bead like hair ties.

He also wore a robe like top but his had long baggy sleeves that covered his hands and it was a light blue, ice like, color. Black shinobi pants were also worn, but there was no shuriken holster and his shoes were the standard shinobi style but wooden sandals. His face was covered by a pure white porcelain mask with no marking except for the slits for eyeholes and the symbol of his village carved on the forehead. What could be seen of his skin was white, even paler than Sasuke's own skin.

"Don't worry guys, they won't hurt us," Kabuto tried to keep up his act that he was relieved that they were saved from the Ame nins. However, the others did not seemed to notice the falsity in his voice as they watched the new shinobi jump from the tee branch they stood on to the ground only a couple of feet away from Kabuto and a small distance between Team Seven's members. They were not worried about the new comers after they saw that their Konoha Leaf symbol on them. "They're just my teammates."

"Oh, don't sound thrilled to see us on our account, after all, we did just save you from these Rain shinobi," the brunette said sarcastically as he pulled his mask down to hang loosely around his neck and showing that he too wore a hitai-ate around his forehead. It also gave the others the chase to see his face, which looked, for a lack of a better word, girly. His face could easily be mistaken for that of a girl's with the soft smooth curves and gentle black eyes; well they would have been gentle if they were not glaring at Kabuto at the moment.

Smiling his horrible smile that was not one of happiness, Kabuto apologized to his teammates. "I'm sorry, but I am tired because of the exam and taking care of these rookies."

"_Don't_ call us rookies!" Sakura growled out, not like being called a rookie one bit before turning her attention towards the others with a smile on his face. "And thank you for saving us-" the cherry blossom trailed off since Kabuto had not introduced them.

"Haku," the brunet replied, supplying the girl with his name. "And this is my brother Gaara." He said motioning to the redhead.

"Well thank you for saving us Haku-san, Gaara-san. I am Sakura and this is one of my teammate, Sasuke," Sakura said showing her gratitude. Even Sasuke mumbled a brief thank you, but he was also watching over the fallen Rain nins out of the corner of his eyes. He did not want them getting up anytime soon and attacking when they were not prepared. He did not a repeat of what happened with the Sound nins. It seemed like they were being attacked all around with no time for them to recover, it neither right nor fair to them. But no one ever said life was fair.

"Shouldn't we take care of them?" Kabuto asked a little agitated. His perfect plan was ruined, by his own teammates. Well, actually, they were not his teammates; he was paired up with them to take the Chunnin Exam when his own teammates _mysteriously_ died. He was supposed to be then paired with the other spies within Konoha's gates to take the Chunnin Exams, but _someone _did not do their job properly and set it up so that they were on the same team. He had idiots for allies, just look at what happened with the Ame shinobi. It was pathetic.

Knowing that Kabuto was right, the others set about taking care of the knocked out ninjas. Both Kabuto and Sasuke tied the three Ame nins up while Haku rendered them temporarily paralyzed by hitting the right pressure points with a senbon and Sakura was searching the enemy. However she did not find what she was looking for, being their scroll that is. It would seem that the Ame had already lost their scroll to another team and had hoped to take Team 7's scroll. The others were so busy doing their own thing that they did not see Gaara walking off in Naruto's direction.

"_Haku!_" Gaara's voice called out, his voice cold by sharp.

Haku looked up suddenly at his brother's call, wondering what he wanted and why he sounded so urgent in his calling. As far as he could tell, there were no other enemies around them. Finishing tying the ropes on the Ame nins, both Sasuke and Kabuto turned towards Gaara as well as Sakura. What they saw was not what they thought they would fine. Gaara was crouching over Naruto, a hand running over the blond's hair and a worried look on his face. What got the members of Team Seven the most was that Kyuubi was not trying to bite him like he did to strangers that got to close to his master, but was sitting right next Gaara, whimpering softly.

Before either of the others knew it, Haku was right next to his brother looking over the blond as well, muttering under his breath. Not understanding what was going on with his teammates and the blond, Kabuto walked up next to them with Sakura and Sasuke following just as equally confused. In the short time that Kabuto had known his teammates for the Chunnin Exams, he noticed that the two brothers did not like anyone that much. Sure, Haku was always polite to him, but he was not opened to people and Gaara was worse, he rarely talked at all and when he did, it was only when absolutely necessary. They were not carrying towards others and were always on guard whenever he had seen them. When they were suddenly worried about Naruto, Kabuto did not -and could not- understand why.

With all the people surrounding him, it was no wonder Naruto chose that time to awaken. After all, he might have been sleeping, but that did not mean he was in a deep sleep. Naruto had learned long ago that nowhere for a ninja was safe to sleep in a deep sleep. Actually, anymore, it was hard for Naruto to sleep the whole night through without waking up a few times in the night. He could not understand why, but he could never sleep the whole night through after his grandmother died. He knew he was safe at home, but he never slept the whole night through. It was that simple.

When Naruto opened his eyes slowly, he did not think the first thing he would see would be so many worried eyes trailed on him. It was quite disturbing way to wake up actually. The second thing he did not think would happen would be for his two older brothers to be there with him. Thirdly, he had not expected to be the center of attention. But alas it everything he did not think would happen did and it was rather unnerving. However, he did not let it get to him and did what he usually did what he usually did.

He smiled happily. "Hi, guys. What's up?"

"Naru-chan! Don't you dare 'what's up' me!" Haku scolded gently, surprising everyone else, excluding Gaara, for different reasons, but ultimately the same reason. Kabuto, because he could detected true worry in Haku's voice instead of the false polite worry he showed to him when something was wrong and he was being polite in asking. Sakura was surprised that the sweet sounding boy that she had just meet was scolding her blond teammate and Sasuke was not only surprised, but also a little jealous that the brunet had called Naruto by such an affectionate nickname. However, what came as a surprise to all of them was the fact the three knew each other.

Naruto opened his mouth to say something, but Gaara cut him off before he even got a chance to. "What happened?"

"Snakebite," Naruto simple said, pulling his vest aside and should the others the cursed seal mark on his neck. The design was simply three tomoes in a circle since the seal was dormant at the moment, but it was giving off a small dark purple evil kind of glow. "But I'm okay at the moment. So what are you guys doing here?"

The three Uzumakis seemed to be in their own little world with the way they seemed to tone the others presence out. Something that was getting on Kabuto's nerves. He loathed being ignored and he definitely hated being left out of the loop, but at the moment he was both. He did not understand what the three were talking about nor how they knew each other and he was being ignored by kids that were years younger than him. They should have been looking towards him for advice, not turn their backs on him and do what ever they wanted to do.

"I don't mean to be rude or anything, but how do you know each other?" Kabuto asked, breaking up the three's conversation and gained their attention.

"You didn't tell them?" Naruto asked confusedly, his head tilted to the side with a small frown on his face.

"What do you mean we didn't tell them? I thought you already did!" Haku replied, rolling his eyes at his little blond brother's way of seemingly never to inform his friends or teammates about his family. "They are your teammates after all, not ours."

"But he's your guys' teammate!" the Pure One protested in his defense, pointing a figure at Kabuto. Gaara just gave him a look that he immediately interpreted. "You're right, you're right," the blond said, the unspoken words of 'he can't be trust' floating into the ears of his brothers.

Rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, Naruto smiled a smile that covered his eyes. "Sorry guys, I would like to formally introduce to Uzumaki Gaara and Uzumaki Haku, my older brothers. Ani, Haku-niichan, these are my teammates Haruno Sakura and Obito's cousin, Uchiha Sasuke."

Hearing that the three were brothers was a little bit of a surprise to the others, but more of a relief towards Sasuke. There was nothing to worry about going on between them and Naruto. He had nothing to worry about anyone taking the blond away from his anytime soon. Still, Sasuke wished the blond would tell him more about his family before hand instead of meeting them and then finding out that they were related to the boy. It was a little discomforting to be almost killed by one of the blond's family members and being slightly jealous of the other two.

"Naruto," Sakura said, pulling Sasuke out of his thoughts, "why do you never tell us about your family until _after _we meet them?" It would seem that Sakura was thinking along the same lines as Sasuke had been.

"Sorry Sakura, it's just that my family is a little…touchy matter with me," Naruto said, pausing when he thought about how he had met each of his family members. All of the times he had meet them were in his greatest times of need. Haku he had meet when he was being tortured mentally, Gaara when he had been sold into the slave trade, Tsunade and Shizune when he was about to die, and Zabuza when he was mentally unstable as a child that was tortured by other children. He had also met the Fox Gods and the Tenshi when he was in need of help and guidance being a Pure One and all. Finally, there was Hoshi, his grandmother, who he had meet when he had lost his really family in order to help the rest of the world.

Sasuke and Sakura's minds seemed to flash back to the bridge and the fight on the bridge and understood with out him having to say anything else. Gaara, Haku, and Kyuubi already understood what the blond was talking about having been there most, if not all in Kyuubi's case, of his life. The only person left out of the loop was Kabuto, who was wondering why he yet to come across the information that Haku and Gaara were Naruto's brothers and what they were talking about. He was supposed to gather as much information on every up coming shinobi there was, but what he thought was everything to know about the three brothers before him, he was totally wrong. He did not understand anything they were talking about.

"Oh," the pink haired girl said awkwardly, not knowing what to say other than that.

"It's okay Sakura, you didn't know," Naruto reassured the girl with a small smile.

"Otouto," Gaara said with a small hit of affection from his usually detached voice when he was around others. "You left this with us when you suddenly dashed away from us the other day," the redhead continued on holding up an Earth Scroll that he had pulled out. "You did beat that Iwa kunoichi in a fair fight for it after all."

"Thanks Ani, I thought I had lost it," Naruto replied with a smile on his face as he took the scroll from his brother. "Look guys, now we have both the Earth and Heaven Scrolls. We have succeeded in the first part of our mission! Now we just need to get to the tower."

* * *

It was not until later the next morning when the two groups of Konoha genin made it to the tower and they were surprised to find that they were the first ones there. However, when it came to the bottom up if, it was not actually the surprising at all. The groups of genin not only had to get both scrolls like in previous years, but they also had to find their teammates as well. It was only a couple of days in to the exam and for some it might not have been easy to find their teammates while other was probably having trouble acquiring the opposite scroll.

There was also the fact that they had to fight for the scrolls, which slowed the genin down greatly, and other things could go wrong having to do with the exam. If that was not bad enough, when they had got close to tower, they had found that there were traps everywhere. It was a hassle just to get through the first part of the traps, and there were three different levels of traps. The first level being hard and the second being one that only experts could get through, but the last, the last level was deadly. It was very likely that many would die when they tried to get through the last part of the traps. In the end, it was not that astonishing that they were the first ones there.

"Well, this is where we part for now," Haku said coming to two different doors that were sealed shut with written seals. "Good luck, and give it your best."

"We will, Haku-niichan, but only as long as you and Ani do the same," Naruto said grinning while Kyuubi yelped his agreement as well.

"It was nice meeting all of you," Sakura said, giving a slight bow as to show her respect. "I hope we can meet again another time."

"I hope so too," Haku said while Gaara nodded his head in agreement before they left through the door.

Following his brothers' team's example, Naruto and his team broke the seal on the door and went inside. The room they walked into was a plan room really. The walls were banged up some and looked to be damaged and repaired here and there as if dozens of fights had taken place there. There were also two balconies on either side of the door with banners hanging off the edges, different kanji for the elements and countries on each of them. Across from the door, that they had walked through was a giant plaque with words with a message written on it and that was it. No one was there to greet them or to explain what would happen next. It was just a regular room and that was it.

"So what do we do now?" Sakura asked, knowing that her teammates were in the same situation as she was.

"Don't know," Sasuke answered impassively, looking about the room once more before his eyes landed on the plaque once again. "Maybe the answers on the plaque."

"Could be," Naruto replied, nodding his head in agreement, "but we won't know unless we read it."

If qualities of Heaven are your desire, Acquire wisdom and knowledge to take your mind higher. If Earthly qualities are what you lack, Train your body in the fields and prepared to attack. When both Heaven and Earth are open together, The path of peril will revert to the righteous path forever. This " " is the secret way… …that guides us on from this place today. The Sandaime Hokage

"I think it's telling us to open the scrolls," Sakura said unsure of herself, but it was the only explanation she had from what she had just read.

Nodding their heads in agreement, both Sasuke and Naruto pulled out the scrolls they were carrying. Looking at Sasuke for the go ahead, since he was still the team's leader, Naruto waited for the raven to give him the go ahead before he broke the seal. Once he had it though, both boys broke the seal on the scrolls at the same time and opened them together. Unraveling the scrolls together with Sakura looking over their shoulders, both Sasuke and Naruto revealed the inside of the scrolls contents. However, the only thing inside of the scrolls was the same kanji spread out on the banners in the room they were in which surrounded a larger kanji that could represent either humanity or person.

Before it could even happen, Kyuubi smelt the signs of a summoning seal on the scrolls and the chakra being released by them. _"Throw the scrolls now!"_ Kyuubi barked his warning before it was too late, _"it's a summoning!"_

Hearing the fox kittling, the two holding the scrolls throw them away from themselves and their unaware teammate that could not understand the fox like the two boys could. She was just about to ask them what the matter was when the scroll that they had just thrown started to give off smoke and a small explosion went off. A cloud of smoke surrounded the two scrolls showing that indeed, there was something that had been something or someone summoned to their location. One that they could not see at the moment. But that did not cover the being's scent, which was clear as day telling Kyuubi who the person was.

"Dolphin-sensei!" Kyuubi yelped out his greeting, confusing one raven while causing the Pure One to grin. 

"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto exclaimed happily just as the smoke dissipated to show that it was their old academy sensei that had been summoned.

However, their sensei did not look how they had remembered him last. He looked, for the lack of better words, like the walking dead. His hair was messed up and falling from the confines of the band he had used to put it up with, over his hitai-ate, and into his face. His clothing was untidy and dirty with a few scuffs here and there, but nothing to major. There were bags under his eyes and the teacher looked as if he had not slept for days on end judging by the paler than usual skin tone he had.

"Iruka-sensei?" the Pure One asked, saying his name again, but this time in more of a question like form as if he was asking him what was wrong.

"Hey kids," Iruka said trying to give them a reassuring smile but failing miserably. "You three look like you've really been through the wringer."

"The same could be said for you as well sensei," Sakura replied concerned for their old teacher. "What happened to you?"

"Just a few glitches that all. Nothing for you kids to worry about," the academy teacher said, grinning as best as he could at the moment. "Well, down to business. I would like to congratulate you three on passing the second part of the Chunnin Exams with time to spare!" this time while Iruka was talking to them, the genin could tell that the happiness was not forced like before but genuine and caring.

"We passed?" Sasuke asked skeptically, thinking that there had to be something more to the exam than that. If that was it, then what was with the plaque on the wall? There had to be something to do with it or else it would not have been there in the room to begin with.

"Yes, but before I can let you go and rest until the rest of the exam is over, I have to make sure that you understand what the directive is talking about," the dolphin said.

"Directive?" the cherry blossom asked, not understanding what he was talking about and to answer the girl's question, the tired chunnin pointed to the plaque. "Oh."

"So, do any of you understand what it is talking about?"

"I think I might have figured out the beginning of it," the kunoichi said, her eyes scanning over the first part of the plaque again. "'If qualities of Heaven are your desire, Acquire wisdom and knowledge to take your mind higher.' It's referring to the human mind and it's saying that if one lacks knowledge and can use their brain then they must study and gain the knowledge they lack that will help them further in their missions."

"Very good Sakura, and the second part? The Earthly part?" Iruka inquired while praising the girl for figuring out the first part of the exam.

"'If Earthly qualities are what you lack, Train your body in the fields and prepared to attack,'" Sasuke recited the second part of the plaque from memory, everyone's attention turning towards him. "Earthly refers to the human body. Meaning if one was weak in strength and power than they have to train their body to raise their stamina and endurance."

"Correct as well, Sasuke," the dolphin praised the Uchiha as well, turning towards the plaque. "And once you have acquired both Heaven and Earth, no mission, however dangerous, will be a wrong path for you. You'll be walking a safe path, even in the midst of the most perilous missions."

"And what about the missing character?" Sakura asked, pointing to the missing portion of the plaque.

"Aw, the character that goes there is the description of what a chunnin should be," Iruka explained to the three genin. "The single character that belongs in the blank space is the one from the interior of the scrolls. It's-"

"'Jin.' One person or all the people," Naruto spoke up startling the others into looking his way. Though when their eyes first landed on the blond they were surprised to find his eyes slightly glazed over and lighter than their usually blue color. It almost looked as if they were glowing with a silver or white light behind the blue of his eyes, but that was impossible. However, they were still transfixed on the unnatural color of the blond's eyes. "Chunnin are the unit commander class responsible for leading their teams and can only do so if they have both Heaven and Earthly abilities. It is their responsibility to take care of the team they are leasing and if anything happens to even one of the team members, it is Chunnin that take the responsibility for it."

The room was silent after Naruto finished talking, absorbing what he had just said. It was not an everyday thing that they heard from the blond and him being that profound in anything often was even rarer. However, when he was profound, it was usually beyond any limit a child his age should even have. Sasuke and Sakura first witnessed the blond's deeper understanding when he had not gone for the bells during their genin exam and explained it to them after they had failed the first time. After that, they had totally forgotten about the incident and never gave it any consideration, but now. Now they were reminded of the incident, they had a lot on their minds.

Suddenly Naruto blinked and the others could see that his eyes seemed to go back to their normal unique blue color that they always were before they closed again. A groan came from the Heir of Foxes and his hand started to come up to the junction of his neck, but never reaching it. Instead, the blond toppled forwards and landed with a loud thud on the ground before anyone could make any kind of movement at all. The sharp barks coming from a distressed Kyuubi was the only thing that snapped the others out of their shock states and caused them to move.

Sasuke, being the nearest to Naruto at the time was the first to get there and roll the boy over so that he was lying on his back. However, the raven almost jumped away from the blond in shock at what he found. The black flames were once again back, but this time they were not black like they were before. No, they were more of a dark purple that Sasuke had only seen one other place before. Yet, before the Uchiha could remember exactly where he had seen that color of purple before, a gasp from his left side caught his attention. Looking up to see that it was his old academy teacher that had gasp and had a look of horror on his face, the raven opened his mouth to ask him what was wrong but was cut off before he could even get the first syllable out of his mouth.

"We needed to get him to the Hokage, _now!_" Iruka said with such urgency that it scared the other two.

* * *

Arashi sat in the room that had been prepared for them in the tower that was located in the center of the Forest of Death waiting for Anko to come in and report to him. On either side of him stood a Sannin with a worried look on their faces and exhaustion present. The two Sannin were stiff and ready to explode at a moments notice if the short fuse that they had developed in the last few days were ignited, but none around them would give them that chance. They had no death wishes and every Konoha citizen knew of Tsunade's strength and Jiraiya's power, not matter if the two might have gabbling or perverted faults, they were still legendary. However, in the short period of time that had gone by, the two Sannin looked their age for once.

Both had wrinkles from tension and worry sown across their faces. Bags seemed to form under their eyes as well as dark circles from their lack of sleep and the tiredness shown in their bodies. However, Arashi was not one to point this out to them, since he probably looked just as bad, if not worse, than the two Sannin. He had stayed up just as long as they had, searching for any sign of Orochimaru outside of the Forest of Death, hoping that he really had yet to gain entrance inside the forest and the killing of the Chunnin Exam participants was all just a ruse to through them off of his real location. His whole body ached and was starting to fail him, demanding rest, but he could rest yet. He had to know why Orochimaru was there in his village and what he was after.

He could not let Orochimaru get a hold of what ever he wanted or else Konohagakure would fall and he would not fail Konohagakure. Not like he had failed his family. Not like he had failed his son.

"Hokage-sama," two chunnin said respectfully as they walked into the room with a battered Anko between them. "Jiraiya-sama, Tsunade-hime, Anko has recovered enough from her fight and would like to speak with you three."

"I can speak for myself," Anko hissed glaring at the two chunnin

"Anko-san, your report," the Yondaime inquired harshly, his regular persona had completely vanished in the last few days. Something that was not a good sign. Anko had only seen this side of the Hokage once, that was when he was dealing with the Village Hidden in the Clouds failed kidnapping attempted on the Hyuuga Heiress, and they were on the verge of war. When the Hokage became that way, Kazama Arashi no longer existed and he was only the Yondaime Hokage. He held no compassion for anyone around him and only thought in terms of the village's, and the people within the village, protection. While he was in this state, the kindhearted blond man could become someone's worse nightmare and torture him or her for days on end until he got the information he needed.

"Hai, Hokage-sama," the kunoichi replied automatically. "The Snake Sannin, Orochimaru, has shown himself while I was within the Forest of Death and we fought. I then tried to perform the Sōjasōsai no Jutsu, but to no success. It turned out that he had used Kawarimi to switch himself with a bunshin before activating the cursed seal he place upon me. With all do respect sir, Orochimaru was toying with me, because he had the chance to kill me at that time but didn't." 

During Anko's whole report, the Yondaime did not once interrupt the snake mistress. He listened to ever word she said looking for anything that seemed out of place with her report that she herself did not notice at the time. The Yellow Flash had not even flinch when he heard that she had tried to kill herself in order to kill Orochimaru as well and keep on listening. Once she finished with her report, only then did the blond allow himself to speak.

"I see," was the only thing that the man said, lost in thoughts. His mind was running a mile a minute and he still had not figured out why Orochimaru had come out know. And then there was the fact that he left Anko alive when he could have killed her when she was under the influence of the cursed seal. It did not make any sense to him. The only thing that came to his mind for why the snake had left Anko was alive was that he did not have enough chakra to kill her right out and had been weakened fighting, but that was not likely. The only one that could take on Orochimaru and still live were expert jounin, ANBU, himself, and the two beside him and he knew for a fact that any jounin or ANBU that faced the snake would report to him immediately, but none had.

"This Orochimaru is one of the three Legendary Sannin of Konoha, is he not?" one of the chunnin that escorted Anko in asked. "He's a bingo book S-class nukenin that even the ANBU can't capture, right? I'd even heard he was killed some time ago…"

"…So why did he choose now, of all times, to reappear?" the second chunnin went on for the first.

"I don't know," the blond said, refusing to let his face fall into his hand and show his weakness. Instead, he looked at Jiraiya out of the corner of his eyes, "does you informants have any information on why he is here?"

Shaking his head negatively, the Toad Sannin told the Hokage with great regret that he had nothing. "No, I have nothing. My spies haven't heard of any movements concerning Orochimaru, but they have been telling me that Otogakure cannot be trusted. It seems the newly formed village is made up of purely renegade shinobi from other villages seeking refugee from their old villages. There is also a rumor going around that something big is going to be happening within the next few months, but I don't know what that is."

"This isn't good," the Yondaime mumbled under his breath, "we don't know why he's here and we can't just call off the Chunnin Exams for reasons it might cause panic throughout the village knowing that only a crisis would call for any village to cancel the Chunnin Exams. We don't want that."

"I might know," Anko spoke up, remembering what her ex-sensei had told her while she was in pain inflicted by the cursed seal, all attention snapping towards her. However, she had not realized she was going over what she had learned from Orochimaru before he had left her in the forest alone. "He said something about being after any ninjas with extraordinary abilities, but that's not all. He hinted at placing a cursed seal on a genin already. I think…I think he's after the Uchiha brat."

"This isn't good," repeated the blond haired man, "this can't be good at all." His head started to ache and throb, his resent sleepless nights trying to catch up to him and trap him within their sleepy grasp. Yet he was not going to let that happen just yet, he had to take care of before he could get at least some sleep. "Izumo, Kotetsu," the Hokage called out to the two chunnin that immediately stiffened at his call, "I want you to get me Obito, Kakashi, and Rin and I want them in here in ten minutes, got it?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" the two all but shouted before poofing away in a cloud of smoke each.

"Anko-san, how is your cursed seal treating you now?" Tsunade seeing the girl, in her terms at least she was still a small child compared to her, wince.

"It's fine Tsunade-hime, the pain has receded some," Anko replied, rubbing her shoulder lightly subconsciously.

However the act caught the others attention in the room. Anyone could tell that the thing was hurting her, but she would not allow it to affect her. It might not have hurt her as much as it did before, yet anyone could obviously see that it still hurt her by the way she was rubbing her shoulder and favoring that arm.

"Anko-san, would you allow me to try something?" the princess of Konoha asked stepping away from the desk Arashi sat at and closer to the girl. Anko hesitated for a second before she nodded her head positively knowing that the woman would not do anything to hurt her. Far from it, she knew the woman would to anything in her power to make her to make the pain stop. Anko knew that the blonde woman had dedicated her life to healing and protecting others ever since what happened with her lover and little brother. She also remembered that the woman had not stepped foot into Konoha for years and had to wonder what she was doing there now, but knew it was not her place to ask.

Feeling a flow of chakra to the seal on her shoulder that felt like nothing she had ever felt before, Anko had to stiffen a gasp. It was not out of pain but surprise, because the pain coming form her cursed seal immediately halted. She did not feel the affects that the seal had on her body when it was activated nor the after effects that happened whenever the seal had been activated even if it was for the slightest bit of time. She actually felt better than she had felt in a long time. Looking up to the woman that had made it possible, the sadistic snake mistress did something that not many saw her doing, she smiled genuine smile and not one of her creep sadistic smiles she had.

"Thank you Tsunade-hime," Anko said in a small voice, showing her gratitude.

"You're welcome," the woman said.

It was only seconds after Tsunade had finished suppressing the cursed seal on Anko that the doors were thrown open. The occupants in the room assuming that it was the chunnin bring in the jounin that he had asked to bring his students to him and they were partly right. It was a chunnin bringing his students to him, but not the right chunnin nor the students. The Hokage was about to ask Iruka why he had brought Sasuke, Sakura, and the Uzumaki brothers here when he, and the others, saw Naruto covered with the cursed seal marks. No one spoke as Iruka cared the blond in and placed him gently on the only couch within the room.

As soon as the chunnin moved away from the blond the surreal seemed to break and Tsunade was right next to her grandson panicking when she saw that he was covered in the cursed seal.

"_Orochimaru!!_" the Slug Sannin shouted her anger getting to her upon seeing her youngest grandson in such a state. The woman's head snapped towards the two men still sitting stunned at the desk, "Jiraiya! Get your ass over hear and look at this cursed seal!_ NOW!_"

Hearing the demanding emotional woman wanting him by her side and knowing that it was her grandson lying right next to her covered in a cursed seal that their ex-team had to have put on him, Jiraiya knew that it was a good idea to listen to the woman. That or be brutally murdered or castrated which was not a pleasant idea, at all. He knew for a fact that the woman was not thinking straight at the moment and wanted all the help she could get taking care of Naruto. He also knew that Tsunade knew nothing about seals, let alone cursed seals, and he had known the most about Orochimaru's seals when he was developing them as a child.

However, it was not only Jiraiya that went to Tsunade's side to check over the blond, but Arashi as well. Something that surprised Anko very much. The child lying before her, dying from the cursed seal placed upon his body by her former sensei, had done something no one before him had yet to achieve, he had been able to change the cold, uncaring Yondaime Hokage to a worried Kazama Arashi. No one had ever been able to do that after the Kyuubi no Kitsune's attack. After his wife and son died on the same night. But this boy, this boy that looked so much like Arashi, had been able to get under Yellow Flash's skin and change him for the better.

Turning his head towards the genin, Arashi asked in a normal voice with eye that betrayed his worry, "What happened?"

"Naruto protected me and took an attack that was meant for me from this snake guy that called himself Orochimaru," Sasuke explained getting straight to the point. The Hokage only needed what was important at the moment, not all the pointless details. He would tell his sensei what happened in detail later, but right now he needed to know what had cause the flame like marks on his teammate. "I don't know what happened after that, but when I awoke, the result of the attack on Naruto was those flames that would come and go, but he seemed to tire out easily even when the flames were gone."

"Also the time in between when the flames would come and go was shortening during each relapse and the black flames seemed to last longer while the white flames seemed to become less and less until they weren't there at all," Sakura inputted, sharing what she had observed as well.

"White flames?" Anko asked startled, her eyes diverting away from the now exposed cursed seal on the blond's neck. Her question catching the attention of both of the Sannin and the Hokage.

"What is it Anko?" Arashi asked, knowing that the snake mistress knew a little about the cursed seals having been the student of Orochimaru.

"That's the Ten no Juin, the Cursed Seal of Heaven. The only ones that have ever survived being placed under that seal has to be a genius, for the lack of a better word, because it takes someone with a high IQ to be able to control it. The seal is designed to give the user power by feeding off of their emotions and desires," the jounin said absently mind rubbing her own Ten no Juin. "However, the cursed seal doesn't feed off of any emotions or desires, but desires of malice and emotions hatred. If one that didn't have a high IQ or weren't corrupted by malice and hatred had the seal place upon them, they will die. But never, _never_, in any of Orochimaru's experiments did the flames turn any other color except black or a dark purple.

"These white flames that the girl has described to me shouldn't be there and nothing I can think of could cause this kind of reactions," Anko finished thoughtfully, "it's almost as if something was attempting to purify the seal."

"…Pure One…" Sasuke heard Kyuubi yelped from his spot in within Haku's arms. The Uchiha did not know what the fox was referring to nor did he understand the analogy, if that was what it was, he was referring to. However, the term did strike a cord in him. Almost as if the term seemed familiar and he just could not bring the memory containing the information forward. Nevertheless, he was sure that he had heard the term in use somewhere in his lifetime and he was going to figure out what it was, but not at the moment. At the moment, he was going to make sure his crush would survive. Something that seemed to be happening a lot lately, first with the Demon Brothers' assault and almost dying there and now with this whole Orochimaru thing, the blond did not seem to have very good karma recently. 

The door was thrown open again, this time letting in the three jounin that were summoned by the Yondaime in the first place. Obito walked into the room with a light happy aura around him as he tried to cheer up everyone around him since the whole Orochimaru sighting had taken place. However, when he caught sight of who was all in the room and how they all looked, the older Uchiha stopped in his tracks causing the two behind him to almost run in to the hyperactive sleep deprived raven. Kakashi and Rin, both of which looked as Iruka did, were about ready to yell at their teammate that was too happy at such a crucial because they were a _little_ agitated at the moment, but closed their mouths when they too got a good look at the room.

Before any of them could open their mouths to ask what had happened, Arashi scooped Naruto up into his arms. "Anko, I want you to go back to your chief examiner's duty and finish them up, but keep a look out for anymore signs of Orochimaru or anyone that can be linked to them. Rin I need you to get a room set up away from the rest either of the occupied room, preferably one close the Medical Wing or near the ANBU Wing. Kakashi, take a unit of ANBU and search the Forest of Death for any signs of unusually activity that may involve Orochimura's doing. Obito, Iruka, take these genin to the Medical Wing and take Tsunade with you as well. Me and Jiraiya will be with you guys in a while, so stay there. And I want no objections from any of you."

And there would not be any objections, for as soon as the Hokage was finished with his orders, the man took the blond in his arms and left with Jiraiya following closely behind him.

* * *

It seemed to take him hours to complete the entire complex set of seals when others that he had done only took mere seconds, but in reality it only took Arashi a little over a half an hour to fill the room up completely with small runes and seals that were all parts for a much larger seal. The seals and runes were spiraling up the columns of the room that keep the roof from toppling down on them and every last one of the seals and runes had to be made with blood. Arashi's blood. However, unknowingly to him and Jiraiya, some of Naruto's blood had mixed in with the runes and seals placed on his body from the bite mark that had not healed properly.

A simple circular seal had been placed around Arashi and Naruto to keep the power from the sealing to go unnoticed by all and protected the rest of the tower from any backlash if there were to be any. Ten kunai were stabbed into the concrete ground in just the right positions to not only strengthen the seal but also to represent Heaven, Ten. Once everything was set up and good to go, Arashi carefully placed the shirtless seal covered blond into the middle of the large mass of seals and runes.

"I'm ready," Arashi stated, turning towards his old sensei, giving him the signal to close the seal that would keep the backlash in.

"Arashi, you know Naruto has to be awake for the sealing," the white haired man told the Hokage in a sadden tone, knowing that the sealing was going to be excruciating for the boy. Nevertheless, it was the only way to keep the boy alive, but that would change if they did not do anything soon.

"I know," the blond said painfully, as if he was the one that would be going though the sealing and not Naruto. Nonetheless, to him, it seem like it was him going through the sealing and not the innocent child that should have never been involved in this whole mess that was the Snake Sannin. "I just wanted to prolong him from waking up and feeling his pain as long as possible."

"Alright," Jiraiya said, understanding his student's reasoning.

Activating the seal, the Toad Sannin watched as pure raw blue chakra created a bubble around the two blonds, separating them from the rest of the world. Jiraiya watched as the Yondaime, no Arashi, gently shook the boy awake from his painless slumber while saying things that his hearing could not catch, but he did not have to know anyways. The blond haired man's body language told him all. Arashi was telling Naruto what he had to do and was trying to promise the boy that he would make it as quick as possible, trying to reduce the pain on the boy even knowing that there was not a thing he could do to speed up a sealing. It was impossible, a sealing took as long as it needed to, no more no less, and each sealing had a different amount of time.

Naruto seemed to take it all well and just nodded his head in understanding before sitting in a hunched over position so the cursed seal mark was bared to Arashi for the sealing. The blond man seemed to smile sadly as he gathered chakra into his right hand that still had some of his -and unknowingly Naruto's- blood on it. Making the correct hand seals for the sealing, Arashi slammed slamming down forcefully onto the genin's back.

"Fūja Hōin!" 

The seals and runes all throughout the room came alive as if they would in any other sealing and started to move around, receding back towards where Arashi's hand was focusing chakra to power the seal. However, what was not normal about the sealing ceremony was that the blood seals and runes started to glow with their own inner light and as the grew closer to the ending of the sealing, the brighter they got. The intensity of the white glowing seals suddenly became too intense for the Toad Sannin to watch what was happening at the very end of the sealing and he had to not only divert his eyes away from Arashi and Naruto, but had to cover them as well.

When the light finally died down and Jiraiya could finally see again, the white haired man found Arashi kneeling on the ground with an unconscious Naruto held tightly inside his arms rocking back and forth as if to soothe the boy. Walking closer to the two blonds, Jiraiya could hear his old student asking Naruto to forgive him for causing him pain. Saying that it had to be done in order to save his life and keep on repeating it over and over again. The Toad Sannin did not do anything and just watched the blond man, understanding what the man was going through.

After all, the anniversary of his wife and son's death was coming up in the coming weeks ahead and all this stuff that was pilling up on him was not good for the man. It did not help that Naruto looked very similar to Arashi himself and what his son might have looked like if he were to grow up. The kid even was around the same age as Arashi's son would have been if he were alive as well. Hell, the Uzumaki even had the same name as Arashi's son as well! Something the Yellow Flash of Konoha probably did not even notice, after all, it was a very well known fact that the man tried to repress his memories of that night almost twelve years ago in a little over a month's time.

However, if Jiraiya did not know any better himself, he would swear up and down that Uzumaki Naruto was Kazama Naruto, but he knew for a fact that could not be true. He was there the night when the Kyuubi no Kitsune had attacked and knew that both the Kyuubi and Kazama Naruto was killed within that fire. He had felt the heat coming off the fire for himself and knew that no child could live through it and if the Kyuubi no Kitsune could not live through it, a human never could. No matter how much he wish it was not true. Kazama Naruto was dead and would not be coming back.

"Arashi," Jiraiya said softly, coming up besides the man and laying his hand down on his shoulder gently. Nevertheless, no matter how gently the Toad Sannin laid his hand down on the blond's shoulder, the man tensed up at the simplest touch and looked over his shoulder at his sensei before relaxing. "Come on Arashi, we needed to get Naruto inside so he can rest properly and heal faster."

"Alright," the blond replied, gaining a sigh of relief from the Sannin. Turning around, Jiraiya began to lead the way to the Medical Wing while Arashi gathered up Naruto's limp body. He had not even taken five steps away from the area when his old student's voice called out to him, stopping him in his tracks. "Jiraiya, the Fūja Hōin seal can only suppress the Cursed Seal of Heaven, right?" 

Knowing that Arashi knew more about seals than he ever would, Jiraiya turned towards the man wondering why he was asking him about it. When he turned around, he saw that the blond was crouching down next to Naruto with the boy's upper body leaning against his leg, his eyes fixated on the boy's neck. But what caught his attention the most was the way the Yondaime was looking at the boy with a curious look on his face, as if he was just given a word problem that he needed to solve but could not quite figure it out.

"You know very well that is how the Fūja Hōin works," the older man stated in a rough voice, while he made his way back to the two blonds. 

"Then why is Naruto's cursed seal gone?" Arashi asked, showing his sensei the genin's smooth, tanned, _flawless_ skin with no sign of the cursed seal on him at all.

* * *

It was very early in the morning in Konoha, the sun had not even risen yet, but that did not mean the shinobi within the village had not. Well, that is, most of the shinobi in the village were already up, but not all of them. A select few of overworked and battle worn ninjas were still asleep in the Medical Wing of the tower in the middle of the Forest of Death. It just so happened that it was not any ordinary shinobi that were asleep in the Medical Wing. Spread out on the few beds were two of the three Legendary Three Sannin, the Copycat Ninja and his teammates, as well as well known Chunnin Academy sensei that could make even the most feared ANBU flinch when angered.

Lying out on the floors in makeshift beds, since all the other beds were occupied, a normal pinked haired genin sleep soundly near the doorway while her black haired teammate sleep peacefully on the opposing side of the doorway. In the farthest corner away from the door and any prying eyes, a demon vessel of a sand tanuki, the descendant of an ice deity, and a kitsune kittling took up a whole corner to themselves to sleep in, but also because they wanted to be close to the Pure One. For, just across from where they sleep, underneath the only window in the room, the Heir of Foxes sleep peacefully without any pain next to the Hokage of Konoha.

Well, the Pure One was sleeping peacefully, but, for some reason unknown to him, the boy woke up. It was slowly and gradually at first, just having his brain wake up and start to function correctly to comprehend what was happening. Then it was his physically body losing the effects of sleep and waking up so they could be put to use again. Finally, blue eyes opened and adjusted to the lack of light before they started to look around the room.

Shifting his body soundlessly, Naruto sat upright and looked at all the people inside the room. At first, he wondered why they were all there in this one room and not in separate rooms where they could all have their own bedding, but it then dawned on him why they were all there. He understood why his family was there right away, being that they were his family after all and they knew each other as well as they knew themselves. It was because of him. For the most part anyways. Nevertheless, he started to understand the others were there for the same reason. Smiling at the very thought that the others were there because of him, made the Pure One smile a soft and pleasant smile that could light up the whole room if anyone was looking. However, the others were still asleep.

Inaudibly, Naruto stood up from his makeshift bed on the floor and walked across the cold tiles to the other side of the room before sneaking out without waking a single soul. Something that was a very big accomplishment seeing that they were all well trained shinobi and some even had sharp skills because of their heritage or what was inside of them. Before he left the room completely, Naruto checked his image in the mirror that was placed on the door to make sure he looked decent and found that he was once again wearing his new outfit, that was not new looking anymore, but his shoes were missing. His hair was a little messier than normal and his headband was not in sight, but it really did not matter to him at the moment. As long as he had close on and did not look like he had just come out of a war zone, he was okay with it.

Once he was outside the door, the blond looked around for anything that might tell him where he was exactly, but it seemed to be hopeless. Looking left and then right and finding nothing that could help him in anyway, the young Uzumaki then tilted his head back and took a whiff of the air around him. Using the scents mingled in with other everyday scents and Mother Nature, Naruto followed his nose to the area he was looking for. As he walked around the unfamiliar building, the Pure One noticed many different things and saw many different shinobi making their way through the building as well. However, none of them seemed to stop and notice the boy, but that could have been expected since he was sticking close to the more shadowy areas of the hallways and he had no chakra signature presently. He silently made his way through the building following his nose until he finally found where the scent was coming from.

Opening the door where the scent was the strongest, the Heir of Foxes stuck his head into the room and looked around to make sure it was okay to enter fully. Once he had deemed it safe, the boy entered the room and let the door swing close behind him. Gracefully, he made his way pass the various chairs and tables set up that a few people were currently seat at some, but none of the people bothered him nor he them. Instead, Naruto just walked back towards where a few people were working and stopped before that, but he did not say a word to the busy workers. He just stood there and waited to be notice as to not make any of them make a mistake on what they were doing.

It did not take long until someone finally noticed him, this being a girl in her late teens, early twenties. She wore a loose pair of blue jeans and a blue plan shirt with a white apron over the top of it. The girl had shoulder length dark brown hair and eyes of the color of the murkiest waters he had ever seen. However, even though her eyes were the color of murky water, they held a warmth inside them that Naruto liked instantly.

"Can I help you?" the girl asked politely looking Naruto over quickly and giving him a small smile. Nodding his head positively, Naruto told the girl what he wanted to do while she listen intensely. After he was finished telling her what he wanted, the girl gave him a bright smile and told him that she would do what she could. "I'm Maia, by the way."

"Nice to meet you Maia, I'm Naruto," the Pure One replied, seeing that it was only fair to introduce oneself to another after they introduced themselves.

"Well Naruto, let's see if we can get these friends of your's a decent breakfast to them before they wake up and have to come here themselves," Maia told him as they went further into the kitchen where Maia worked.

Maia, with the help of Naruto, put together two trolley carts full of food with everything they could imagine for breakfast sitting on it. Once they were finished and had enough food and drinks to fill up a group of shinobi, the two made their way towards the Medical Wing, each pushing a trolley cart. By the time, they had reached the room that everyone was in, the sun had full risen and it seemed, by the noises from inside, that the others were just waking. Opening the door, they saw that indeed the others were waking, but were not fully awake as of yet, because of the bright sun shinning in through the window.

"Good morning," Naruto said cheerfully while pushing the trolley into the room with Maia following behind him. It seemed that the others were more asleep than they were originally thought, for there was just a grumble of relies and some seemed to try and burry themselves back into their beds to get more sleep. However, the scent of food started to fill the room and even if their minds were not fully awake, their stomachs were growling at the whiff of freshly made food, especially the genin that had not had anything good to eat lately because of the whole Forest of Death exam.

The first one to get up was not surprisingly loud, but it also was an effective way of waking the others up as well. "Is that waffles I smell?" Obito exclaimed, his eyes snapping open and a growl came from his belly as he bolted up right and looked for the source of the scent of food.

"Yep, we brought breakfast," Naruto answered his teacher, chuckling at his expression of glee and hunger.

"Gimme some!" the Uchiha begged as he untangled himself from the sheets on the bed and stumbled over to the food. His stomach growling all the way for it seemed to be protesting about his not eating that much as of lately. He was just so busy he did not seem to remember to eat and now that he was, his stomach was going to remind him painfully how much he had neglected to eat. Judging by the looks of the others that were now getting up, they had done the same.

"I would like some too and some eggs as well if there is any," Iruka said, coming up behind Obito, him being the closest bed to where the two carts were.

"Sure," Maia replied after handing the much-starved Uchiha his plate of waffles and began to make the chunnin a plate also. Well she made the man a plate of food, Naruto took the time to notice that his old sensei did not look as ragged as he had the day before. The sleep must have helped him greatly and what the sleep had not done, the food that he was now receiving would.

Grabbing a plate of his own, Naruto made himself a plate and two others before everyone started to surround the two carts and moved away from the carts so the others had room to get their breakfast as well. Carrying the three plates, the Pure One made his way towards the back of the room where the Yondaime, even with all the noise, was still sleeping. Setting two of the plates down next to the sleeping blond, Naruto then walked over to his grandmother and handed the blonde haired woman the last plate.

"Here Obaa-chan, this is for you," the boy said sweetly.

Taking the plate, Tsunade ruffled the blond already mess hair and smile. "Thank you Naruto. And how are you feeling this morning?"

"I feel much better now that the cursed seals gone completely. Shina-sama came and visited me last nigh in my dream as well," Naruto said, catching more of the woman's attention with the last part.

The night before, when Arashi and Jiraiya had come back in with her grandson, she had been totally amazed that the cursed seal was completely gone. She had listened to her old teammate and the Hokage explain to her and the older shinobi about how the cursed seal had completely vanished after the sealing and knew instantly that it had something to do with the either the deities or Tenshi. She just did not know exactly what, something that tormented her mind for a while, but she soon forgot about the whole thing because of the simple fact that her grandson was better. Something that made her very happy.

"She explained to me what happened about the whole cursed seal thing," Naruto went on with his explanation, "apparently me blood got mixed in with some of the seal causing the to be much stronger than it normally would be. And since the cursed seal was better contained my angel blood than had enough time to contain the cursed seal like an antibody would a virus and destroyed it."

"I see, well, as long as your better that's a good," Tsunade said before shooing him away to eat his breakfast, "now go eat you breakfast before it gets cold."

Nodding his head, Naruto went over to the two plates he set next to the Yondaime and picked up one before shaking the older blond wake gently. The man was slow waking up and seemed to be in a little daze for the first couple of second. However, when a plant of food was given to him, he seemed to wake right up. Taking the plate with a small thank you, the Yellow Flash started to eat at the food with vigor. Seeing that the man was eating happily, Naruto joined his brothers and Kyuubi, who had gotten their food already, in the corner. Together the three ate while talking and sharing their food with Kyuubi, all seemingly happy.

When Arashi was more awake and could think properly, the man watched the three Uzumakis as he ate the food Naruto had given him. It was actually the first time he really got the chance to see Naruto's brothers, but he knew what they looked like from short descriptions from the blond and Obito. But seeing the three all together really made the Yondaime wonder. A paled skin boy with brunette locks and black eyes, a slightly tanned teen with blood red hair and eyes of the greenest emeralds, and tanned blued-eyed blond. Something just did not add up there, each boy was as different as humanly possible in looks and mannerisms; it was almost as if they were not brothers at all. It did not make sense to Arashi, since all the sibling he had ever seen had at least one thing in common with one another, but the three boys did not have a single thing. It was almost as if they were not related at all.

Yet watching them, no one could deny the fact they were brothers. Gaara, who seemed to be the oldest by looks of it, was the more serious one of the three brothers and the most antisocial, but he was very protective of the other two. Haku was more of the kind and caring type, but he to seem to have an icy aura about him and was protective over his little brother. Then there was Naruto, the youngest and most innocent of them all. He seemed to be the only one that was able to get pass his brothers' barriers and get them to open up to reveal their true selves. They talked with each other so freely and did not even need words to communicate on their feelings. The three seemed to have a bond that no matter how hard anyone tried, they would never be able to put it into words.

Arashi had the seen the same thing with Tsunade, Shizune, and Zabuza when they were around Naruto and thinking back on it, he understood why they were all family. Zabuza, Shizune, and Tsunade all needed Gaara, Haku, and Naruto as they needed them. Tsunade was their grandmother because she keeps them in check and guided them down on the right path, while they keep her in check from going down the wrong path and becoming just another drunken broke gambler. Shizune was there aunt that gave them love and acknowledgement for what they had done and they in return gave her the love and acknowledgement of the family that she had lost when her brother died. It was obvious why Zabuza was their uncle, he taught them all how to fight and be strong and they had showed him how to be strong in heart and gave him a reason to fight. Even Kyuubi seemed to have his own part in their family as a loving pet that also seemed to be their protector and guardian.

They made each other strong. They helped one another out. They made each other laugh. They were there for one another. They were a family. And when Naruto invited him over to join him and his brothers while they ate together, they all seemed like they were apart of his family. Something that made him feel whole again.

* * *

**_ Thanks for all those that reviewed! It made me want to write again._**

**_Shi no Tenshi 902_**


	21. An Uchiha's Katana & the Power Within

This is a little late X-mas present for all my readers, sorry for how late it was, but finals were a bitch and I needed to get X-mas shopping done. But I have finally up dated! Yea, me!

* * *

A week had pass since the beginning of the second part of the Chunnin Exams and the deadline for the second portion was fast approaching. All the teams that had already gotten to the tower were told to meet in what was referred to the Beating Room since it was so beaten up and that was where most of the sparring or training for the shinobi took place. Nevertheless, there were not many teams that had arrived, but the shinobi that were running the exam said that most of the groups would make it in just before the deadline. There were actually very few teams, only two, that made it to the tower before the day of the deadline for the exam, most of the genin needed all the time to complete the exam. It was only a select few that did not need all the time that were given. However, it did not mean that they were guarantied to pass the Chunnin Exams and were ready to become chunnin. It just meant that they excelled in that area of the exam.

Even though the two teams had already passed the second part of the exam and had free time that did not mean that they were not doing anything. Once they were all rested up and healed properly, both teams took to training to keep themselves in shape and ready for the next part of the Chunnin Exams that was to come. Well, not all the genin took to training after they had just come out of the Forest of Death, one decided that they were not going to train and relax instead. This person being one very wormy person in Naruto's mind and who else could it be, but Kabuto? No one. He had not trained once since they had arrived at the tower neither had he done anything worth mentioning. Well, that is, if one were to ignore the fact of his spying and gathering information on them.

Unlike Kabuto, Team 7 and the other two Uzumaki brothers had done some training, but nothing to serious. They all wanted to be at their prime for whatever the next portion of the exam was and to do so they had to keep in shape, but they also had to be rested and rejuvenated as well. Another reason that they did not do anything to serious was the fact that they did not want to show all of their cards at one time and to have an ace up their sleeves just incase. So for the few days they teams had off, they were training their bodies and minds while also relaxing and they were not the only ones relaxing.

Ever since Team 7 had arrived back from the Forest of Death, everything seemed to settle down somewhat in the village. Orochimaru had been spotted by the ANBU leaving Fire Countries borders, his failed plans probably the reason for his retreat. With the confirmed information that the Snake Sannin was no longer within the Country, the overworked shinobi could finally relax some. The tension building up in the village seemed to dissipate and the cool air of September seemed to be more than welcome. Shinobi that were once sleep deprived and looked like the walking dead now looked like their normal selves once again.

Arashi had finally taken a break from his Hokage duties for a couple of days and slept most of them away while catching up with some much needed relaxing time. Iruka and Kakashi, after getting some sleep, had taken only a day off and the two of them went of their first official date, all with the prompting and help of a blue eyed blond genin and a fox kittling. Nonetheless, the date was kind of ruined with Obito and Zabuza following along and Kakashi yelling at the two to leave them alone. Nevertheless, at the end of the day, after much laughing on Zabuza and Obito's part, Iruka gave Kakashi a goodnight kiss on the cheek and told him it was the best date he ever had. The scarecrow than gave both Obito and Zabuza a hug -him being on Cloud 9 and not even realizing what he was doing- before he happily went home.

Both Shizune and Rin had gone to an onsen for their day of relaxing and fun, but they managed to over look one little thing. Jiraiya was in town and he was _relaxing _as well. It did not take the two women look to notice the occasional giggle and the other odd sounds that the man made that they were being watched. It also did not take them long to figure out who it was either and with both of them working together, the two managed to have Jiraiya on his own little relaxing vacation. In the hospital. However, the two did not know if what they had done was a good idea, since the perverted old man seemed to be enjoying the fact that he was surrounded by all the women nurses that were taking care of him. So just to make sure he was _well_ cared for, Rin and Shizune had Olga, one of the most unappealing nurse, take care of him. The terrified screams told the two women they did the _right_ thing.

As for Tsunade, well, she was with her grandsons for they were her way of relaxing. Naruto had finally even introduced her to his teammates, trying to keep his word that he would introduce his family to them before they officially meet. However, the two had almost had a heart attack finding out that the Slug Sannin was their teammate's grandmother. It made for some very interesting reactions, but other than that everything went over smoothly. It was a nice couple of days for the shinobi, but now it seemed to be all over, for the next section of the Chunnin Exams were about to commence.

Naruto was just running a little behind in getting to the Beating Room, but he was not late. He just was not early either. Instead, the boy was scurrying down the hallways towards his destination with Kyuubi right on his heels and a gleeful smile on his face. Now one may wonder why a boy that was running a little behind schedule was so happy and it was simple really. The Heir of Foxes had just switched Kabuto's nin-cards with his own seat of blank cards. All that information he had been gathering on the village and the shinobi for the evil snake was now lost to him, forever. And he did mean forever, because right after he switched the deck of cards, Naruto had burned them.

Finally, Naruto and Kyuubi arrived in the Beating Room and quietly joined his team and his brothers' team in the small mass of genin. He was pleased to note that as he made his way to stand beside Haku and Sakura that Kabuto seemed to be fidgeting a whole lot and he held the blank nin-cards that Naruto had switched with the original. After he getting over the satisfying fact that he had out thieved a spy, the blond took the time to look around the room to see what all teams had made it. Other than his brothers' and his team, only three other Konoha genin teams made it and surprisingly he knew all of them. There were Team 8 and Team 10 from his year and Team Gai from his brothers' graduating year. Excluding the five Konoha genin teams, there were only two others that seemed to make it into the finally part of the Chunnin Exams, one being from the Suna and the other team, one that Naruto was not happy to see, being the Oto nins that they had encountered in the Forest of Death.

"Congratulations to you all on passing the second portion of the Chunnin Exams," Anko's voice rung out across the room, causing Naruto to turn his head from analyzing the teams that passed to look towards the front of the room. There, in front of where all the genin stood patiently waiting that was slightly higher than the rest of the floor was a raised area which the Hokage stood on. Behind the Yondaime Hokage stood what Naruto assumed were all of the passing genin teams' sensei, judging by the way all three of his own sensei were up there, and all the shinobi that had taken part of organizing the Chunnin Exams, since Anko, Ibiki, and Iruka were all up there as well. Behind them a statue of two arms that looked to be coming out of the wall and were in the seal to perform the kage bunshin rested.

"Now Lord Hokage himself will explain about the third exam. Listen up and take every word he says to heart!" Anko barked making sure all turn their attention towards her. When she was sure she had everyone's attention, the snake mistress turned the reins over to the Yondaime. "They're all yours, my Lord."

"Very well," Arashi said, falling into his Hokage mood once again now that his relaxing days were over for the moment. "The third examination was about to commence… but before I go into the specifics on how it will be conducted, let me make one thing perfectly clear!!!" Now if what the Yondaime had said before had not gotten all the ninjas' attention or the fact that it was _the Kazama Arashi_ speaking to them, then his next sentence did. "It pertains to the underlying reason behind the Chunnin Exams."

Many of the genin seemed to have a confused expression on their faces; they did not know that there was an underlying reason behind the Chunnin Exams. They just thought it was there for them to move on to the next stage of their shinobi careers, but did they think there was any other reason for the Chunnin Exams to take place. Did that mean that it was held for the amusement of other? For them to watch in entertainment as they risked their own lives for others to watch as they almost die? It was something that was a little disturbing to think about if that was the reason at all, but other ideas that were running through some of their minds were much more demented than that.

"Why do you suppose an examination of the nature is being jointly conducted by all of the nations in our alliance?! To '…promote friendship and alliances among nations and raise the level and standards in the arts of the shinobi…' maybe that perhaps?!" the Yellow Flash continued, taking a well known shinobi quote out of one of the Academy handbooks. "However, you should all be very clear about what those fine-sounding phrases actually mean! This so-called examination is in fact-" all of the finalists of the Chunnin Exams seemed to be hanging on to every word Arashi was saying, well that is everyone but Team 7 and the Uzumakis. "-a war-in-miniature between all of our lands."

A surprised gasp went throughout the rookie genin, and some of the older genin as well, at the Hokage's rather blunt and to the point statement. It was not how they had imagined what was truly behind the Chunnin Exams, but it was also a lot worse. They were still just children and the way he made it sound just then was like they were full blown warriors ready to battle at a moments notice. Thankfully, their fears were put to rest as the man continued on with his explanation, reassuring them that were not going to be going into any real wars anytime soon.

"If you were to study our recent history -and consult a map- it would swiftly become apparent that our alliance is, in fact, a temporary and mutually beneficial agreement between groups of geographically contiguous lands," the Yondaime deadpanned. "But made no mistake. When this is done, it will have the side effect of winnowing out any applicants unfit to ascend to the level of chunnin. But even more importantly, it serves as an arena wherein, for the honor of their respective homelands, young shinobi may fight to the death, if needed be! This third examination will be conducted under the watchful eyes of a number of distinguished guests, including the rulers and nobility of the various lands you all aspire to serve. And among their number will be those who rule over each country's own Hidden Villages. They all will be watching you.

"If any one nation's demonstrate outstanding skill and superiority, the noblemen from ever land will be quick to commission work from those trained in that superior nation. Conversely, if a particular country's applicants are shown to be incompetent or feeble, commissions to agents of that country will dwindle. And when one land is strong in battle and the village coffers overflowing with the fruits of the many outside commissions this begets then that village may say to its neighbors, ' Beware, for we possess prowess and riches and the influence of political power'!"

"SO?!" Kiba shouted out, causing his sensei to shake her and feel humiliated for her student's outburst. "Why is it necessary to stake out lives and fight…?!"

Seeing the rambunctious Inuzuka and hearing his question caused a slight smirk to appear on the Hokage's face. One that seemed to go unnoticed by all around. "The strength of a country is derived from the strength of its village and the village draws strength from the shinobi who live there and the greatest strength of those shinobi only emerges in the midst of a desperate Life-and-Death battle! These exams provide a public arena for each country to show off and boast of the strength of its warriors. Hence, the strength of the country itself! This test has meaning and great consequence. As you struggle for the sake of your very lives and your people, you help to fulfill the dreams that were envisioned by our ancestors."

"But, you're always emphasizing the concept of 'friendship' …why?" Tenten yell out, making herself and her question be known to the ones around her.

"Though meaning is subtle, I chose my words with care. To preserve the balance of power at the risk of lives…is the essence of friendship in the world of shinobi," Arashi explained, leaving some of the genin even more confused than before. Seeing this, Arashi had to fight off the will power to smack himself at their mental knowledge. Maybe he needed to emphasize the meaning of one's mentally knowledge as well, that and have the Academy curriculum increased before one could graduate from and become a genin. It would solve a lot of headaches that way. "Let me reiterate before the third exam begins, you are taking no ordinary test! You risk not only your own futures and your dreams, but the dignity and prestige of your home village as well."

It was silent. That was the best description one could give after the Hokage's speech. All the genin were too involved in their own thoughts to even witness the others around them and see what their faucal expressions and body language gave away about their own thoughts. It was a lot to handle after all, having the genin know that not only their career, but the well being of their village, rest solely on how the performed during their exams. Some were too deep within their own thoughts that when a puff of smoke signaled the arrival of a jounin caused some of them to jump.

"And here is the next Chief Examiner for the third part of the Chunnin Exams. I now leave you in the capable hands of Gekko Hayate," Arashi announced, sweeping his hand around so that it pointed to the new arrival.

The man was kneeling down in front of the Hokage to show his respect towards the higher shinobi, but when he was introduced he made the move to stand up. However, anyone that was not skilled in the field of med-nins could tell that the man was sick at how slowly he stood up. The man had bags under his eyes and he had chronic coughing that sounded like it hurt as well as looked it. He also looked to be dead tired and he should have been in bed sleeping and not there. Black eyes and brown hair that was partially covered by his bandana hitai-ate stood out greatly with his sickly pale skin. He wore the standardized jounin uniform of the Konoha, but nothing else really stood out about the man.

"Thank you Hokage-sama," Hayate said, before turning his attention to the genin. "Hello everyone, I am Gekko Hayate, the third Chief Examiner of the Chunnin Exams. Uhh, before we start the exam, I must ask you to do something for me… Ummm, you see… there are some preliminaries to the exam proper and whether you proceed to the main exam is contingent on how well you manage those."

A loud outburst came from the genin, all violently reacting to having to do the preliminaries. They just came out of the Forest of Death -well most of them anyways- and lost over half of the participants of the exam that way. Why did they have to do some stupid preliminaries? It was unfair!

"Well… I don't want to say that the first two exams weren't demanding enough… But the truth is…we still have too many applicants…" Hayate explained in between his coughs, his permanently tired expression not giving away any of his true views on the preliminaries. "Under the traditional of the exam… we have to have a preliminary test to reduce the number of applicants proceeding to the third exam. As Hokage-sama mentioned… a number of honored guest will be observing the third exam, so we must make the exam… intense, tight, and fast-moving… Hmmm… So anyways…Now that you know something… of what it is all really about… Let the preliminaries begin!"

"Wait!" Kabuto shouted sounding more alarmed than he should have. "Aren't you going to let the genin that don't feel up to the challenge walk away? Like the years before?"

Smiling his best smile, which did not look all that great at all and made him look sicklier than he already did, Hayate answered the teenager's question simple. "No."

Kabuto looked to be stunned at first glance and then he seemed pissed off for some reason unknown to all but himself. He was about ready to yell at the sickly man about that not being fair, but he was not given the chance to, as the Hokage spoke and he did not dare interrupted the Hokage while he was speaking. It was would not go along with the good-boy façade he had been using. It also did not help that he was slightly scared of the man that in the Konoha-Iwa war, shinobi had been told to flee on sight if they came across the man. Not someone he really wanted to mess with.

"The rounds will be conducted as a tournament would and the victor of each round will advance to the real third exam. Since there are twenty-one participants and the preliminary rounds will be a one-on-one battle, the three remaining finalist that have been paired up will be fight against one another in a three way fight," Arashi told the group as a rumbling sound was heard and an electronic scoreboard was revealed. "The matches will be paired up by this scoreboard and the only way the matches will end is if your opponent is dead, knocked unconscious, or they admit defeat. Something that everyone should take to heart is if you know your opponent is overpowering you, admit defeat if you value your life. However, since we don't want a total bloodbath on our hands, Hayate, one of the other Chief Examiner, or I will step in and choice a winner, thus end the match if it is getting too out of hand."

"But don't count on that happening," Hayate said as the screen behind him started to flash all of the names of the genin entered in the preliminaries. "Now… Get off the area so that we… may begin the preliminary rounds…However, Uchiha Sasuke and Kinuta Dosu… please stay here…it seems you two are the first two to fight…"

Turning his head, the young Uchiha saw that his name was indeed up on the board, nominating him to be the first one to fight along with the Sound nin.

"You can take him Sasuke," Sakura whispered to him as she passed him by on her way upstairs to the gallery and gave him a quick hug for good luck. He did not try to push the girl away, knowing that she did not have a crush on him anymore, but he still felt slightly uncomfortable in her embraces. After she left, his attention turned to Naruto who was still standing besides him and he could not help the stray thought that he would not mind having the blond give him a hug, but pushed that thought to the back of his head. Instead, the raven just raised his eyebrow and through body language, Naruto understood that he was wondering why he was still standing there.

"Good luck," Naruto said to him, giving him a cheerful smile before he too made his way towards the gallery after Sakura with Kyuubi on his shoulder.

Watching the blond boy jog a little bit to catch up with the cherry blossom, Sasuke's features soften. He was so relieved when he woke up that day to find that Naruto was back to his normal self. That his eyes were once again their unique blue color that shown with an inner purity that none other could match instead of the sickening yellow color surrounded in a pool of black that held pain. He was even more satisfied to find out that his sensei had been about to remove the seal from the blond completely, though Arashi had told both him and Sakura to keep a look out for anything out of the ordinary with the blond that could have been caused by the cursed seals presents. Luckily, as of yet, there did not seem to be any.

Turning towards his new opponent, Sasuke fought the urge to give a sadistic smirk. It did not work. After all, he was the one that wanted to have Naruto killed when he was injured and Sasuke did not take to kindly to him even thinking of having the blond murdered. He was going to show him why it was unwise to cross an Uchiha. They did not get mad, they got even, and Sasuke was definitely going to get even. He was just sad that it was not the one that had actually tried to kill Naruto and not the one standing in front of him, but since beggars cannot be choicer… He was getting the one that had order Naruto's death instead, so he was content.

* * *

Walking up the flight of stairs after Sakura, Naruto followed the girl to a spot a little ways away from some of the other groups, but not that far away from them. The spot was just perfect to see the match from, though others might not thinks so, since all they saw was the back of Sasuke. Others, mainly the fangirls, would have rather been able to see the Uchiha's face and not his back, but for his teammates it was different. While others saw the back of the Uchiha, they saw a wider span of what the Sasuke saw letting them see almost like the same thing the raven saw. Something that let them better determine what their teammate would do next and what to anticipate from him.

Seeing that the match was not going to begin right away for whatever reason unknown to Naruto, the boy took the time to look around the room. The first thing he noticed was that all of the teams' sensei had followed their students so that they were watching the exams together as a team. However, looking over to where their four sensei were, the Pure One could see why they would not be joining them anytime soon. Actually, he could not see why, but being the Heir of Foxes had its perks, increased hearing was one of them. Apparently, the council members had just summoned Arashi and their other sensei, for what, he did not know, but judging by the way the ANBU had sounded, it was going to be awhile before they saw any of their sensei again.

Next, Naruto took in the different teams that had made it into the preliminaries. The first being the foreign shinobi that were not form the village, but the he was still slightly familiar with, they did act his team when he was knocked unconscious. Or, at least that was what his teammates told them, though he knew that there was more to the story, since Kyuubi had been mumbling something about _'…snake smelling sound that [he was going to maim for even thinking about having [his friend killed…'_ there had been more to what the fox was saying, but Naruto choice not to remember that, it made even him shiver to think about it. Well, after a little information gathering and spying, Naruto had found out a little about each of them.

The first one, the one Sasuke was going to be fighting, was Kinuta Dosu, the leader of the group. The boy was fourteen and had a special speaker implanted into his wrist that served to amplify sound waves and dramatically increase the strengthen of his sound-based jutsu. He was most infamous to use his implant to use damage the eardrum of his enemy to not only throw them off balance, but also make them nauseous and kill them slowly. He could also control the sound waves in midair and redirect them at will, making sure he always hit the mark. The teen was also the most levelheaded one out of his whole team and could adequately gauge an opponent's strengths and weaknesses in little time. Naruto also observed the fact that Dosu seemed to have a friendship or a brotherly bond with his teammate Zaku, but he could careless for Kin.

As for Zaku, the boy's whole name was Abumi Zaku and he was also fourteen years old. He also had implants like Dosu, but his were different. Zaku's implants were hollow air tubes that extended through his arms and opened through his palms. With his air tubes, he could properly form a combination of air pressure and sound in various ratios that were strong enough to crack stone and wipe out anything in its path. He was the type to act quickly without thinking and did not care about his own wellbeing but was only clouded with the thought of power, something Naruto did not like about him at all. The boy was cocky and overconfident that did not think about the consequences of his actions. He someone the Pure One could see falling because of his own faults to a weaker opponent.

Lastly was Tsuchi Kin, also fourteen and the only girl in the group. She seemed to be an outcast in even her own team and was real resentful for that fact, but she never tried to change it either. Naruto had found that she used senbon with bells and nin-wire attached to them as her main weapons. However, the bells were no ordinary bells, but ones that could ring at a high frequency that affected the average human's mind. It would cause her opponents to see multiple copies of her that they could not tell the difference between them and with a constant exposure, the opponent would start to find that their body would start to shut down.

Their sensei did not look like the kind of guy to be trusted for the plain fact that he looked too much like the one that had put the cursed seal on him, Orochimaru. The guy even reeked of the snake so strongly that he would have thought that the man was Orochimaru if he did not already know what the shinobi looked like and he knew that the guy was not using a henge. But just because he was not Orochimaru did not mean he was not going to keep and eye out on the guy, he reeked too strongly of the snake not to watch him and the ones he associated himself with. Like the sensei standing next to him, Baki if he remembered the name correctly. They seemed to be on too friendly terms for the blond's taste, so he would have to watch him and Baki's team, because if their sensei was involved, they most likely were too.

The next team that Naruto looked over surprised him greatly and it was not because of their sensei was talking to the Orochimaru-look-alike nor was it the fact that it was the place where he was sold into slavery. It was because he had heard so much about them from his Ani. They were his real siblings. Temari and Kankuro. Turning confused blue eyes towards his brothers' team, Naruto was met with guarded emerald eyes that he seemed to be the only one that could read and watched as their owner nodded his head positively in answer to his unspoken question. Sending Gaara a look that told him everything would be okay, the blond turned his eyes back onto the Sand team.

Temari, from what his Ani told him, had gained her looks form their mother having bright blond hair and teal eyes. She was also the oldest, being sixteen years old, and was very independent when she was a child. She always spoke her opinion and never changed it just because that was what the crowd thought, which was the reason why Gaara missed her somewhat. She had been one of the kinder people towards him and did not treat him like a total monster, but she did not treat him like a brother either and stayed as far away from him as she could. Like he said, Gaara only missed her _somewhat_. The Heir of Foxes was unsure of if the girl had changed for the better or worse since Gaara had last seen her, but he did know a few other things about her via the wind.

Apparently she also had an affinity for wind the same as him and the wind seemed to like her. Well, at least that was what the wind told him anyways and he briefly wondered if given the chose would the wind take her side or his? He crushed that thought; instead he studied her choice of weaponry, it being a rather large fan strapped to her back. Something about it looked rather heavy and Naruto preferred to not be hit by the thing if given the choice. With his eye for weapons, he could tell that the thing was made of iron and was well crafted as well.

Next to her, was Kankuro, or what he could only assume was Kankuro with what description Gaara had given him. The boy was fifteen, but with the way he looked, Naruto could not really tell. The guy looked like a kabuki actor with the face paint he was wearing and he wore an outfit that was fit for a bunraku puppeteer. Something that gave away the face that he was a puppet master right away to many if they took the time to think about it, but most shinobi at his level now did not. The blond assumed that the giant wrapped thing on the teen's back was one of the puppets he used and had to wonder what it looked like. The teen was very distant and did not like children when he was a kid from what Gaara had said, and by the looks of it, he did not seem to change much.

Finally, the third member of the Suna shinobi looked to be very strange. The man was covered head to toe with black and wore black lenses over his eyes, no glasses just lenses, creepy if you would ask Naruto. All Naruto really knew about this man was that his name was Akado Yoroi and he could not be trusted. The man smelled heavily of snake and had Kabuto's scent mixed in with his own, meaning that the two had been next to each other for long periods of time; it could have also meant they were involved with one another, but their scents were not that strong on the man to be true. Besides, Naruto could not smell Yoroi's scent on Kabuto meaning that they definitely were not involved with one another.

"It's starting!" Kyuubi barked, pulling Naruto from his evaluation of the teams and turning his attention towards the arena instead. He could analyze the teams later or each person individually while they were battling, because he definitely was not going to miss Sasuke's fight.

* * *

"All right…" Hayate said before dissolving into a coughing fit that did not last long. "Please… begin…"

And so it did. Sasuke made the first move by simply drawing his katana from his back before pointing it downwards at a slight angle with the tip touching the ground and his extended arm straight. The Uchiha's other arm was merely at his side as he stood up straight with both feet together. However, his right foot was facing towards Dosu while his left was at a ninety degree angle and facing to the side. His face was flawless, there was no emotion evident on his being and the boy looked like a statue standing there. He even had shut his eyes and did not show any sign that he was even concerned about his opponent.

Seeing that the Uchiha was not taking the battle seriously -having his eyes closed and all- Dosu growled in anger. Shifting his eyes towards where Orochimaru stood in disguise watching him, the Oto nin decided to make the first attacking move. Grabbing a handful of shuriken out of his pouch, the teen throw them with great accuracy at the raven. However, Sasuke did not even try and make a move to dodge or deflect the attack and just continued to stand there with his eyes closed. He paid no heed to the shouting coming from a blonde haired kuniochi in the background to neither move nor her shriek of terror when the shuriken just whizzed pass him only causing a few strains of hair to sway in the current they made as they passed him by.

Instead, Sasuke eyes snapped open and he whirled around backwards on the ball of his left heel, just in time to dodge the sound wave that was meant to hit him. Stopping all movement, the Uchiha once again fell into the same stance before, but this time his eyes were open and a slight smirk played on his lips. One that only served to make Dosu even angrier that he had seen though his plan and had not taken the shurikens bait. The boy was not supposed to see that the shuriken were merely a distraction that was meant to keep him busy while the sound wave destroyed his eardrums. However, it also served to show him that his opponent was not one to take lightly. It looked like he was going to pull out his special attack sooner than he thought he would have to.

"Kyōmeisen," Dosu shouted with a triumphant look on his face after expelling a vast amount of chakra just to make sure the attack caused enough damage while also making sure he had enough control over the attack to redirect it in the way the Uchiha would try and dodge it. However, the Sound ninja was quite shocked when Sasuke did not even try and move to dodge the attack. But he was not as shocked as what happen next. His attack hit the raven full force and _nothing happened! _The _boy _was not even fazed by his attack at all! He just stood there in the small position, his superior smirk on his face and his hair slightly ruffled by the attack. That was _it!_

There was no sign that he was affected by the attack. No nauseous signs. No teetering on his feet showing that his eardrums had been damaged. _Nothing!_

Something that surprised Dosu to no end and put him into a mental shock of sorts. While he was in a small paralyzed state, Sasuke's smirk just grew larger and he made his first move. Dashing forward, the young sharingan wielder had his katana pointed at a slight angle behind him as he ran and both his hands now rested on the hilt of the sword. When he was only ten feet in front of the Sound nin, Sasuke jumped up into the air and brought his katana to rest high above his head. The momentum behind his attack along with momentum behind his descent and his own weight would have been enough power behind it to serious injure Dosu, even cut him in half, if it was not for the cheering from Ino that snapped the Oto shinobi out of his demeanor.

Seeing the attack, Dosu lifted up his arm with the implant and once again sent chakra through it.

"Kyōmeisen," Dosu yelled, but this time he did not mean for the attack to cause his opponent to become ill-balanced and nauseous, he already learned it did not work. No, this time he was used his implant to cause more of a disruption in the air, pushing the air outwards away from him and effectively not only causing Sasuke's attack to be thrown off, but throwing the Uchiha rather painfully into one of the wall. It was a spur of the moment thing, something that the shinobi did not even have any idea that he could accomplish himself and just rearranged how the chakra went into the attack. He did not think that it would have had such a devastating outcome judging by the huge crater had formed around in the wall caused by Sasuke's own body and he like it. 

Grinning madly, Dosu just found that he had more than one use for his attack than he thought he did and he was going to tryout the full extent of it on the Uchiha. Sasuke on the other hand did not like being thrown into the wall and his eyes flashing for a second to his sharingan showed how much so. Pulling himself out of the crater formed in the wall courtesy of his body, the raven barely had enough time to get out of the way of a horde of kunai and shuriken coming his way. However, he was not worried about weaponry, but the sound wave behind them. Thinking that he had dodge the attack completely, the Uchiha was taken completely off guard by behind hit once again and thrown to the ground before skidding to a halt.

"What the hell?" Sasuke groaned out while pushing himself up and glaring over at Dosu. "I was sure that I had dodged it."

"Kyōmeisen!" Dosu yelled, laughing as he watched it head towards the unprepared raven. However, propelling himself up into the air, Sasuke tried to dodge the attack once again, but it only managed to make him a sitting duck up in the air. Throwing his hands upward, the Oto shinobi laughed as his attack changed directions and flew up at the defenseless Uchiha. He was sadly disappointed though when the attack did not connected, for the Uchiha had focused chakra into his feet to pull him towards the wall and held him there. It was easily fixed. 

Bringing his hands down, Dosu again redirected his attack towards the unknowing raven's back. The attack slammed into his being with such force that it not only knocked him off of the wall, but enough to cause him to spit up blood. His body plummeted to the ground and he did not even have the time or the strength to stop himself from hitting the hard ground. The pain was not something that was pleasant and hurt like hell, but Sasuke was determined to not let it bother him. Something that was very hard to do.

Lifting his head, the first thing the Uchiha saw was his katana that he was skill holding and the three dragons made into it. For a second though, he could have sworn he saw the three dragons move, but he pushed that thought to the back of his mind when he saw further beyond that to where Dosu was preparing to attack him again. Pushing himself up off the ground, Sasuke narrowly dodged the attack, but he was not going to be fooled twice. Spinning on the balls of his heels, Sasuke whirled around to see if the attack was going to come back at him. However, he was caught by surprised when he was hit in the back, again, with the Kyōmeisen, but not the one he dodged. He had made a mistake by turned his back on the enemy and left himself open for the attack, which Dosu took advantage of and attacked. 

Grinding his teeth, Sasuke weakly picked himself up off the ground and mentally cursed himself for making suck a stupid mistake. Turning towards his opponent, the Uchiha saw his team in the gallery behind Dosu and a thought hit him. He was going about this for revenge on the blond's behalf and it was clouding his judgment. At that moment he reminded himself about the vow he had made after his brother killed their whole clan save three, he vowed not to grow stronger so he could get revenge, but so that he could protect those important to him. What he was doing now was almost going against that vow, but he was going to change that.

Standing up straight, Sasuke fell into his fighting stance once again, but this time he cleared his mind of thoughts of revenge. Snapping his eyes open, just in time too, the raven dodged an incoming attack by jumping to the side. He did not stay still thought and keep on moving to make sure that he would not be an easy target for Dosu. Something that seemed to be keeping the Oto nin on his feet and keeping him on edge. It was also annoying him greatly, but that was because he had to waste a lot of chakra to either redirect his original attack or create a whole new one.

Suddenly, Sasuke found himself trapped in a corner to speak; there just was not a corner. Dosu had somehow managed to control three different Kyōmeisen to make it so he could not dodge to neither side nor jump upwards and was somehow able to keep them in a rotating current so that it did not give him the chance to escape. Smirking, the Sound shinobi did not see anyway for the Uchiha to get out of his predicament and knew he had the cat in the bag, so to speak. 

"Kyōmeisen." Dosu smirked as he watched Sasuke hands fly up to cover his face knowing that he could not dodge the attack. The Sound nin could not help but smirk when he saw that. Holding his hands up would do nothing to protect him from his attack. His last attack had been filled with so much chakra and then some that he figured would tear the Konoha shinobi to pieces. The Uchiha seemed to realize this when the attack was almost upon him and his eyes widened when he realized, which only caused Dosu to laugh. 

Sasuke could feel the power behind the attack coming towards him and he had no idea what to do. He could not move away from the attack, for the other three attacks circulating around him preventing him from doing so, and he could not form any hand seals with his katana in his hand. His katana…

His _katana_.

Zabuza had said something about the seals on it becoming stronger the more he trusted himself and the katana. He already trusted himself and the katana was made by Naruto, who Sasuke trusted as well. So if he put his trust in Naruto and applied it to the katana, would that count? Seeing movement out of the corner of his eye, Sasuke knew his answer when the attack hit him.

Nothing happened.

Well, nothing happened to him physically, but something was sure happening with his katana. It had not been an illusion before, the dragons were really moving and it was then that the second part of what Zabuza had said about the katana had come back to him. As he developed and evolved, so did the blade and what it could do. What he did next, Sasuke himself could not understand why or how he did what he did, but he did it all the same. His eyes turned towards Dosu, his mutated sharingan spinning wildly in his eyes as he looked over the stunned shinobi that could not believe that his attack had been stopped.

Holding his blade so that it was parallel with his face, Sasuke put his left hand covered in chakra flat against the backside of the blade near the Uchiha clam crest and the dragons seemed to react to his hand and chakra. They seemed to move around on the blade more and their ruby eyes and gold claws seemed to shine brighter than before.

"Takama-ga-hara no Ryu." At first it looked like a circle of the black fires of Amaterasu had surrounded the boy, startling a few of the jounin that had seen the attack before. However, his katana was also covered by the fire, yet it was not hurting him. It was then the fire from his katana and the surrounding fire shot forwards towards Dosu taking the shape of three serpent like dragons with ruby red eyes and claws of white gold. The dragons were not very big considering the snakes they had encountered in the Forest of Death, but they were not small either and once three of them reached Dosu, they seemed to consume him. The trio of dragons wrapped themselves around the Sound nin so that no one could see the teen before they exploded in a black fiery blaze. 

When the blaze finally died down, they seemed to be no harm done to any of the surrounding environment. The only thing that it seemed to harm was Dosu and there were no signs of the shinobi at all. The black flames had totally consumed him, leaving nothing left for any to find.

"…Umm…the winner seems to be Uchiha Sasuke…seeing as there is no sign of the other opponent…" Hayate announced to the audience, most of which were stunned after seeing Sasuke's last attack. The only one's that did not seem effective were his fangirls in the crowd that seemed to be cheering him on and Naruto and Kyuubi that were beaming at his victory. "Well then… Right! Let's get the… next match going."

As Sasuke made his way off the field and up the stairs of the gallery towards his teammates, the rest of the teams watched the electronic scoreboard to see who was going to be going next. It was by mere luck that the Uchiha saw who was going next, even though he did not care, and had to growl in anger, but he also had to smirk. Abumi Zaku was facing off against Aburame Shino. The damn Sound nin that was going to get what was coming to him. Unlike others, the raven did not underestimate the silent bug kid and knew of his strength. He would most definitely make Zaku pay for trying to kill Naruto. He would not dwell over it anymore and made his way over to his teammates.

"Thank you Sakura, they really helped," Sasuke said, pulling the special earplugs she had discretely given him during her hug before his match.

"You're welcome Sasuke, what are teammates for anyways?" Sakura said, giving him a happy smile and waving him off. "Besides, now you owe me one."

"That's bribery," Sasuke stated, only causing the cherry blossom's smile to brighten.

"Exactly," Naruto said with a foxy smile on his face. "After all, we are a part of the few people that know you best and what better way to use that information than to exploit it? Just be happy we aren't blackmailing you, since we have very valuable information that your fan-club would just die to have. It wouldn't be our fault if they just happened to find your training schedule and daily planner, right Sakura?"

"Of course not Naruto," the kuniochi gasped with fake appall, bringing her hands up near her face to add to the act. "I mean anyone could know our training schedule and sneak into the Uchiha compound, ste- borrowing his daily planner as well. We would not give your schedule or daily planner away, Sasuke_-kun_."

"However, selling them to the highest bidder would not be against my morals though," the Heir of Foxes piped up causing Sakura to giggle and Kyuubi to bark in agreement with the blond.

"Gee, thanks, blackmailing and bribing, what are teammates for anyways?" the Uchiha said rather sarcastically, while rolling his eyes.

Anyone else would have gasp at seeing the cold emotionless Uchiha Sasuke, talking and joking around with others acting his own age for once, but to Sakura, Naruto, and Kyuubi, it was now normal. Being put through hell and back while in the Forest of Death had really changed them. Their teamwork and shot up drastically since they had come out the forest, because what they had been through during the second part of the Chunnin Exams. Each of them had been able to save the others lives and put their own lives in danger while doing so, which served to strengthen their teamwork and create a sort of bond between them. One that allowed them to open up more with one another then they already had and let them act like kids their age for once and not shinobi, something that they found was very relaxing at times.

"Aw but you wouldn't have us any other way, you loves us the way we are, right?" Naruto asked in cute voice with his head cocked to the side and his bright blue eyes looking at him sweetly.

Something that caused Sasuke to blush slightly and turn his head the other way while he answered his blond crush. "Yea."

"Yeah! Sakura-chan, did you hear that? Sasuke-kun loves us the way we are!" the blond faked squealed before looking over towards Sakura. Sasuke did not miss how the blond held a gleam in his eyes that seemed to spark with untold mischief and he did not feel comfortable with it. He felt even less comfortable when Sakura gained that same gleam in her eyes as well and nodded her head in the blond's direction. It was when the two turned their gleaming eyes on to him that the Uchiha felt the need to run far, _far_, away from his teammates. He was not given the chance.

Before he even knew what hit him, the two genin tackled him to the ground in a giant hug, trying to smoother him with affection. Literally. "Gahh! Get off me!"

"But we love you Sasuke-kun and want to shower you with our love!" Sakura pouted in a babyish voice, holding tight to the squirming teen as to make sure he did not get out of her hold.

The raven under her just seemed to try harder and get out of hers and Naruto's grasp, but no matter how much he tried, they were not letting go. Besides, if he really wanted to get out of their holds he could, but that would no doubt able hurt them and as much as he was not going to admit it, he enjoyed their antics. Especially Naruto's, cause the boy he like was giving him a hug, even if it was just in a friendly, playful matter, it still caused him to blush. Somewhere between all of the Uchiha's squirming and his two teammates holding on to him, they had somehow managed to end up with Sasuke sitting cross-legged on the ground with Sakura kneeling next to him hugging onto his neck and faced pressed up against his and Naruto ended up sitting in his lap, arms wrapped around his torso. Even Kyuubi had somehow managed to end up in the mess and was lying on Sasuke's head. However, their fun and games had to come to an end sometime, but they did not like that their fun and games were interrupted.

"FOREHEAD-GIRL! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING TO MY SASUKE-KUN?!"

Letting go of Sasuke, Sakura stood up and replied back to the enraged blonde haired girl that was once her best friend. However, she did not start yelling at the girl like had had once done, but instead replied back to her calmly and without any signs that the girl agitated her. Something that she did for one of two reasons. One being that she was not even the slightest bit concerned over what the girl claiming Sasuke was her -she was no longer interested in the boy after all- and the second reason was for a totally different reason. She knew that it would piss the girl off even more than her doing anything else would have.

"I'm doing nothing to _your_ Sasuke, Ino. I'm just giving _my_ teammate a congratulatory hug," the cherry blossom replied, causing Ino to loss it and start on a long rant about Sasuke being hers and he would never be Sakura's.

"Women, so troublesome," Shikamaru stated coming to stand right next to Naruto -who had let go of Sasuke as well once Sakura had, much to the Uchiha's displeasure- with Chouji by his side. Sasuke had also stood up at that time, snorting at something Ino said about him being hers and joined the group of boys with Kyuubi still on his head. He had just come in time to hear what the lazy genin had said, and had to mentally agree with him. He had found out he was gay after all, and girls did not do a thing for him. The blond standing right next to him on the other hand, while his crush on him spoke volumes in Obito's opinion.

"Agreed," Naruto said while covering his sensitive ears as Kyuubi laid his flat against his head when Ino went into a screeching fit of rage. Once he deemed it safe again, the Pure One let go of his ears and turned to face the two boys from Team 10. "Long time no see Shikamaru, Chouji. How has it been?"

"Troublesome," the lazy boy replied.

"Shikamaru, everything to you is troublesome," the Heir of Foxes deadpanned. "You are the laziest genius I have ever met, you know that?"

"And you are the most complex enigma I have ever known," Shikamaru retorted without skipping a beat while still being able to sound idle.

"Guys, don't start this again. It's too early in the morning to hear this," Chouji complained, in between him munching on his chips.

All the Akimichi got in reply was a 'troublesome' and a slight 'sorry' from the two boys and an odd look from the Uchiha. Apparently, the raven did not understand what had just transpired between the two boys, yet that was understandable. Only a few people could understand what went on between the genius and the enigma and Chouji just happened to be one of them. He himself did not know when it really started, but he guest that it would have been the day that Shikamaru and him had first meet Naruto. Unlike the other kids his age that did not hang out with Shikamaru and him at lunch because they were the outcasts, the blond had walked right up to them and ask if he could join them during the lunch break.

Shikamaru had just mumbled something about troublesome and Naruto had taken that as an okay. They really did not talk to each other during the lunch break, Shikamaru and him thinking it was a one time deal and he would not hangout with them again, but they were surprised that the next day he came. Not thinking it over to much, the two thought it was a fluke that he had come again, but they did not tell him to go away either. They were surprised that he came again the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that until they started to open up to him and he them. By that time they had become friends sort of and Shikamaru had started to noticed that there was something off about Naruto. He never had a lunch.

It was then that Shikamaru started to notice other things that were off about the blond, like the fact that he never left any traces of himself anywhere. Or the fact that no one ever came to pick him up from the academy and he was always there when they got there, if he was at the Academy at all that day. He seemed to miss school on a regular base too and all those little things did not add up. He was one puzzle the genius could not figure out and if Shikamaru was not so lazy, he would have been determined to find out what. But alas he was not and he just settled for calling Naruto an enigma and the blond telling him he was a lazy genius before the cycle began again, much to Chouji's displeasure.

"At least my sensei showed up to support my team though!" Chouji heard Ino yell, snapping him out of his reminiscence of his Academy days with the lazy genius and blue-eyed blond.

It also served to get Shikamaru's attention, noticing that however harsh the comment was, Ino was right. He did not see Team 7's sensei anywhere around them. Hell, he did not even know who their sensei was, his or her name was not called out when they were assigning teams, Iruka just mentioned that their sensei was going to be different than the rest. Maybe that was why their sensei was not there; maybe this difference in sensei was what caused the person not to be there. The only explanation that the lazy genius could come up with that was possible was that Team 7's sensei not being there and being a little different then the rest of their sensei was that their sensei was a shinobi still on active duty for solo missions.

"But their sensei are here, we're just got tied up for a little bit, but we wouldn't miss this for the world," a cheerful familiar voice said.

Hearing the voice caused all of Team 10 to stiffen, because none of them had been able to sense anyone approaching them much less standing behind them. They also stiffened because; they all were quite familiar with that voice, even though they had not met the owner of it personally. Ino just really, _really_, hoped that it was not the same person she thought it was or else she would feel really embarrassed. Turning around slowly, Ino, and the rest of Team 10, almost did not breathe at the sight of the person, for it was indeed the person she wished it was not.

There standing before her was the Yondaime Hokage and behind him were his famous students. Hatake Kakashi, the Copycat nin. The medic nin, Rin. And one of the last surviving Uchiha, Uchiha Obito.

"Arashi-sama! You're here, and so is everyone else!" Naruto exclaimed upon seeing his sensei.

Smiling fondly at the hyper little ball of sunshine, Arashi had to chuckle at not only him, but the other three ninjas' reactions. Their face held a look mixed of pure shock and awe. Shock at probably seeing him and the three behind him and awed because they were standing there in front of him, more so him than the others. He seemed to have that kind of effect on people. He was not sure if it was the fact that he was Hokage or if he was the Yellow Flash. That, or it could have been a mixture of both being the Hokage and Yellow Flash, so it was probably the last choice.

"Yes, we are here," the Yondaime said chuckling slightly at seeing the blue eyes looking up at him with wonder, something that never seemed to get old, before turning his attention towards Sasuke. Walking over to him, Arashi set one of his hands down on the young Uchiha's shoulder and smiled down at him while he looked up with no emotions on his face. "You did a good job with that fight, you didn't let your negative emotions get to you and that was what help you win."

"That, and the new kick-ass move," Obito commented, coming up to him on his other side, and lightening the mood. It also seemed to get Team 10 out of their shock on seeing Team 7's sensei.

"The winner is Aburame Shino!" Hayate voice called out, causing the all of their attention to turn towards the battlefield where the battle was going on. Something that Ino was very grateful for since she did not want to think about how she indirectly insulted the Hokage. Team 10 seemed to totally drop the fact that the Hokage and his original students were they and turned towards the battlefield along with everyone else. Well, all of them but one mischievous Uchiha. One that had his attention turned towards his cousin with a smirk on his face. Something that really started to annoy the other until he finally turned his head to face him.

"What?" Sasuke asked, his annoyance showing.

"You do know Kyuubi is sleeping on your head, right?"

"Shut up," Sasuke growled and turned away from his cousin just in time to see Sound genin get carried away in pieces.

* * *

The next fight was boring for Naruto to watch, since he could tell who was going to win right off the battle. No offense to Ino, even though he really did not know the girl -which was simply because they not once talked due to the fact that she never notices his existence being so wrapped up her 'love' for Sasuke- but she was not a real good shinobi. She did not take her career seriously and lacked the necessary skills to defeat the Sand shinobi, Akado Yoroi. The Sand genin had a bloodline limit that allowed him to absorb other peoples' chakra and use it as his own and the blond kuniochi needed that chakra to use her family's mind-jutsu, without it she was doomed to fail. Naruto also had to admit she was doomed to fail from the beginning for the reason was that all her jutsu were that of her father's and his were all used in combination with the Ino-Shika-Cho Team. In other words, her jutsu and skills were developed solely around teamwork and she had no chance at beating the Suna shinobi on her own.

And Naruto was proven right when the girl was knocked unconscious by a simple punch to the stomach after Yoroi had taken all of the girl's chakra. Sighing, the Pure One rested his head on top of his folded arms which were lightly resting on the railing. The boy just wished that something more interesting would happen. Nothing dangerous, just something to keep his mind occupied while he was suck inside waiting for his turn to come. As if answering his question, a shout of pure excitement when through the whole room before their was a declaration of love was made.

"YOSH! SAKURA-CHAN, IF I WIN THIS BATTLE, WOULD YOU GO OUT WITH ME?!" a very hyperactive and enthusiastic voice called out from the group.

Opening one of his eyes, when he closed them Naruto did not remember himself, the Heir of Foxes saw that standing down on the area was a familiar green and orange clad figure that he had not seen in ages. The last time he himself had saw the boy was when Lee and the other students of that year had been assigned their teams and he had to stay _another _year in the Academy. The boy was nice and all and they had kind of become friends when they were in the same class, but the young taijutsu specialist never came to visit him in the Academy after he graduated.

Turning towards Sakura, Naruto saw that the girl turned her head away from the boy making her braided hair swing around her shoulder and seemed to have a disapproving look on her face. However, seeing as the Heir of Foxes was so close to the girl and was pretty good at reading others emotions, he could see the slight content smile on her face and saw her aura slightly brighten. Even when she turned the boy down with a simple 'no' there was a satisfied feeling to her aura and the blond found out why a few seconds later. An inner fire seemed to burn in Lee's eyes and he started to get worked up, making it hell for his opponent having to fight an emotional worked up teen like Lee was. Naruto had to feel sorry for Chouji, who was the unfortunate soul that would be fighting against Lee.

Turning his head towards Sakura, while Lee was still going on about his love and proving himself to Sakura, Naruto gave the cherry blossom a questioningly look. One of which she returned when she saw him giving her the look as if she was asking why he was giving her that look. After a few seconds on trying to find a rather nice way of wording it and partially failing, the blond boy asked the question straight out.

"I didn't know you like Lee," the blond whispered at a loss. He did not say it too loud figuring that since she had declined him, she did not want anyone knowing she like the boy or having a different reason all together for not wanting others to know. "I didn't even know you two knew each other."

"We actually just meet before the Chunnin Exams and it took me a little while to get to see him in the light I do now, but I'm not sure how I feel about him exactly. Please don't tell anyone about this," Sakura whispered back with a small blush on her face. "I want to focus more on my shinobi career at the moment and not boys. That's why I won't accept his dates," the cherry blossom tried to explain herself to Naruto, but he already understood.

Smiling back at the girl brightly, Naruto reassured her that he would not tell anyone about it. "I won't Sakura, but just because you are focusing on your kuniochi career doesn't mean that you can't hangout with Lee. It wouldn't be a date per se and you two can get time to get to know one another better. I know!" the Pure One said, brightening up at his own idea that would better help his teammate figure out her own feelings for Lee. "You two could train together. That would even get through Lee's thick mind that it wasn't a date."

"That's a good idea," the girl said with a thoughtful expression on her face, her blush still present. "Thank you for the advice Naruto."

"You're welcome, what are teammates for anyways, eh?" Naruto said grinning his foxy smile, before the two of them turned their attention to the on going match.

However, it was like Naruto's last prediction. Chouji, like Ino, lost his fight against the rambunctious Lee for pretty much the same reasons. Also being apart of the recreated Ino-Shika-Cho Team, he too learned his skills from his father and was used to using them with his teammates together in battle. Nevertheless, just like his teammate, when he was on a one-on-one battle with someone, he could not handle it. It did not help that Lee was his opponent and the boy was determined to prove himself to every that a person who could not use genjutsu or ninjutsu could still be a great ninja. Chouji did not stand a chance against him.

When Lee started to leave the area, Sakura smirked and called out to the boy, surprising many. "Hey Lee! After the preliminaries are over, how about you and me go get something to eat? _Not_ as a _date_, but as congratulation for winning your match, what do you say?"

"YOSH!!!" the boy yelled with joy, his eyes yet again burning with an inner fire and shinning with happiness. "I WOULD LOVE TOO SAKURA-CHAN!!!"

His reaction caused Sakura to giggle a little making Lee even more thrilled than he already was -if that was even possible- and began to jump around happily.

"Man that's one hyper kid, not even Naruto and Kyuubi combined are like that," Arashi said nervously watching what he knew would be the next Green Beast of Konoha and taking Gai's place. "I'm glade I'm not his sensei."

"I have to agree with you there, sensei," Rin said watching the boy as well. "But I blame it on Gai's influence on the kid."

"MY ETERNAL RIVAL! OUR STUDENTS ARE BASKING IN THE YOUTHFULNESS CALLED LOVE!!!" Gai shouted, as he appeared right next to Kakashi making the poor man wince at the proximity between the two while he was yelling and also the fact that he had found him.

"See what I mean?" Rin asked flatly, causing the Hokage to laugh uneasily as he rubbed the back of his head.

* * *

Thanks for waiting and I hope you all had a Merry Chirstmas and Happy Holidays!

Don't kill me...

**_Shi no Tenshi 902_**


	22. Fighting for the Title of Chunnin

The first update of 2008, yea for me!

* * *

Another fight had already taken place, one of which Lee did not know who to cheer for. On one side was his teammate, Tenten, and the next Green Beast of Konoha felt it was his duty to cheer he on to victory since she was his teammate after all. However, on the other hand, the love of his life -as he refers to her as- Sakura was fighting against Tenten. He wanted to cheer her on as well and wanted her to win just like he had. The problem being that he could not cheer one on without feeling guilty for not cheering the other on, but he felt strange cheering them both on. He wanted both of them to win, but he knew that only one of them could win. It was just so confusing to him.

In the end, the love of his life did not come out victorious. Neither did his teammate. It was a double knockout and no victory was declared. Something that was a relief on Lee's poor mind, since even if one of them won, he would still feel guilty that the other lost. If Tenten won, he would have congratulated her and been extremely excited that his teammate was moving on to the next round with him. He would also feel really depressed that Sakura lost and would not be moving on with him like he had hoped. It would be the same thing if it was all vice versa. It was an endless cycle and it was one that Lee was glade never came into play, even if it meant that both of them had to lose.

"Inuzuka Kiba vs. Haku," Hayate announced, slightly mystified why the hell he did not have a family name to work with for the Haku boy.

The announcement was one that caused Lee, who had decided to hangout with Team 7 instead of his own team, to slighting gasp, something that did not go unnoticed by the love of his life and her teammates. It was enough for even Naruto to turn away from the beginning of his nii-chan's battle, which was a statement in itself. The blond would usually be cheering his brothers on in this sort of situation, but seeing that Lee looked like he had just spent the night in a haunted house, the Heir of Foxes was slightly curious what was going on with the older boy.

"What? What is it Lee? You just look like you saw a ghost," Sakura asked, looking at Lee's extremely pale face and rigid stance. His eyes were wide and fixated on the arena below as if his life depended upon his eyes never leaving the fight that has gotten underway.

"I didn't know he was going to be here…" the mini Green Beast mumbled under his breath as if he had not heard what the cherry blossom had said. His eyes following the dodging figure and a look of concentration spread across his face.

"Who do you mean, Lee?" Sakura asked still trying to figure out what was going on with the boy. Following his eyes, all she watched the fight for a bit, which only consisted of Kiba and his dog constantly attack Haku while Naruto's older brother just dodged the attacks like they were nothing. Turing back to the boy by her side, the cherry blossom tried to get him to explain to her what was going on. "You mean Haku?"

Hearing the brunette's name seemed to snap Lee out of his own thoughts and he finally looked at Sakura. Seeing the curious expression on her face, the serious expression on his face softened and his smile returned. "Sorry Sakura-chan, I didn't quite catch what it was you said."

Looking between Lee and Haku out on the battle arena, the pink haired girl wondered why the spandex wearing boy did not seem to like Haku. Knowing that she could not read minds, Sakura voiced her question out loud.

"It's not that I don't like Haku-san, actually like him a lot. He is a very kind person, but Neji doesn't see the same way as I do," Lee stated, looking over towards his team.

Following his gaze, the others saw that he was looking towards his team, more specifically, Neji. At first glance the boy looked perfectly posed and indifferent. However, upon closer inspection, one could see the slight narrowing of his eyes and the way his veins bulged as if he were using the Byakugan even though he was not. One could see that his hands, which were at his side, were clenching and unclenching becoming white as could be at times. There was even a slight shaking to his hands that could have been from nervousness or rage.

"You see, Haku and his brother, Gaara, are a year above me and my team even though they are the same age as we are. The two of them were tied for rookie of the year when they graduated even with the other students having a year more to train. They are both that good, being able to graduate early and at the top of their class, it's a real accomplishment," Lee began, his usual hyperactive demeanor all gone and a serious one replacing it. "It was by chance that the day we officially graduated the Genin Exam that our team stumbled upon the two's training grounds. It was only after Neji realized who they were that he demanded that they fight him. He wanted to test himself against the previous rookies of the year.

"However, Gaara flat out refused to fight him and Haku told Neji that he would not fight one such as him. Neji took that as an insult and attacked Haku thinking he was calling him weak, but I don't think that was the case. The fight… Well, I don't really think that it could have been called a fight at all. Neji attack and attack like the boy down there is-" Lee motioned to Kiba and his dog as they continued to attack Haku at random "-but he couldn't land one hit on Haku. In the end, Neji tired himself out and made a fool of himself doing so. Since then, he has held a grudge against the boy. I do not know how Neji will reacted seeing Haku and I do not want to think about what would have happened it Neji would have gotten the chance to fight Haku again. Neji would probably rip him to shreds if he got a hold of him again with the way he has been practicing."

"I wouldn't count on it," Naruto said, watching his brother dodge another one of Kiba's attacks with ease, a lazy expression on his face.

"Why's that?" Lee asked, curious how his old friend was acquainted with the other boy and how he knew such a thing. The Pure One lazily turned his eyes towards the other two that were talking and debated with himself if he should tell them or not. The former won out and he sighed, hoping that nothing bad would come out of telling the others.

"Because, you haven't seen Haku-niichan's kekkei genkai yet," Naruto stated simply, turning his head back to face the arena.

What Naruto did not realize at the time of divulging the information was that he had everyone believing that Haku, Gaara, and he were all brothers by _blood_. Everyone, except those they knew the whole story, thought they were brothers and if one brother had a bloodline limit the others mush have one as well. That was the reason why the others reacted the way they did, even Team 7's sensei that had been listening to the conversation with one ear while watching the match now had all their attention directed towards Naruto and for the life of him, Naruto could not figure out why.

"_Kekkei-?!_" Sakura gasped out, looking alarmed at Naruto.

"_-_**Genkai?!**" Sasuke finished while his eyes were wider than normal.

"Nii-chan?!" Lee asked, his eyes bulging out of his head. "HE'S YOUR _BROTHER_?!"

"Yea, Haku-niichan's my older brother, so what of it?" the Heir of Foxes asked Lee, not seeing how it was such a big surprise that he was related to Haku, or for that matter Gaara. "And yea he has a kekkei genkai, so does Ani, if you can call it that." The last part of muttered under his breathe because he was not quite sure if one could call being able to control sands because of a tanuki sealed within them having a bloodline limit or not. "Haku-niichan's kekkei genkai is the Hyoton, which he got from his mother, and Ani has the Sunaton, which he got from his father," the Pure One explained to the other truthfully. It was just that they were not listening to every word he said, so they missed the pronouns thinking that it their parents were all the same people.

"But what about you Naruto? What about you?" Arashi asked, finally bringing himself and the other sensei into the conversation.

"Well, I have some control over sand and ice thanks to Ani and Haku-niichan, but not like they do," Naruto explained, referring to the bonds he had with his brothers. However, it was not taken that way by the others, they thought that he had control of sand and ice because his brothers held him control his bloodline limits. They thought he had two kekkei genkai at his disposal, even if they were weak. Thankfully, it was cleared up quickly enough.

"So you have two kekkei genkai?" Rin asked, making sure she heard right.

Upon hearing the misunderstanding, the Heir of Foxes shook his head back and forth frantically. "No, no, no, no, no- you miss understand. I have no kekkei genkai; both my brothers do, but not me. I can only control sand and ice because of the things they have taught me that don't require their bloodline limits to use. As far as I know, there is nothing special about my blood concerning kekkei genkai."

And it was true, as far as he knew; he did not have a kekkei genkai. It just did not mean that his blood was not special in another way. He was not lying, he just was not telling the whole true. Of course, it would probably cause some confusion if he said he was a Pure One and the Heir of Foxes, so he just decided not to mention that. It was best for all.

* * *

"Would you fucking stay still already?" Kiba shouted getting frustrated that Haku had yet again dodged the Gatsūga like it was nothing. He was seriously getting pissed off at the boy; he seemed to be playing with him. It did not help that the brunette's face was covered by a mask making the dog-boy very frustrated with the lack of knowledge on who the boy was. He could not even figure out his scent, the only way for him to describe it was that it was cold and chilly, but it was refreshing as well. It reminded him of snow for an odd reason, yet it did not smell like snow. It was a puzzle that was frustrating and since he was fighting with Haku, it made it all that more frustrating. 

"Now why would I go and do that?" Haku asked amusedly behind his mask as he dodged the two Kibas again. To him, this fight was not worth his time; his opponent was too brash and hot-tempered. He let his pride get the best of him and it was showing in the way he attacked. The dog-boy left openings all over the place and Haku, if he wanted to, could have knocked him out in a second or, worse yet, killed him. The only reason he had let the battle go this far without him actually doing anything except dodging was because, truth be told, Zabuza's habits had rubbed off on him.

Toying with the enemy was a mind game that Zabuza loved to play and Haku had pick up the habit as well. Gaara did the same thing as well, but his was in a more sadistic manor, but Haku could not blame him for that. He did have a tanuki demon sealed inside of him. Tanuki were mischievous creates after all and some, like the one Gaara happened to have sealed inside of him, were known to become sadistic at times. Thankfully, the brunette was not as bad as his brother, or Kiba might already be in the hospital by now. He just like the mental mind games he played with his enemies while Gaara took more of the torturous route.

Dodging another badly coordinated attack between the two Kibas, Haku decided that it was time he went from defensive to offensive. But where was he to begin? He did not want to use his bloodline limit right away, because he could not use it at the moment. There was not any water around and the moister in the air was hardly enough to create one mirror, let alone enough to circle the dog-boy and his puppy in mirrors. So first thing he needed to do was bring more water in and what better way to do that then uses his uncle's techniques?

Going through the hand seals, Haku began to take offensive. "Kirigakure no Jutsu."

The whole arena was instantly surrounded in mist, making it hard for anyone to see the fight going on. It also hindered Kiba's, and Akamaru's, sight as well, causing them to lose sight of their opponent. However, it did not discourage them at all since Akamaru could smell Haku out and Kiba could do the same when he channeled chakra to his nose. What the two, and most of the crowd, did not know was that the jutsu was not supposed to hinder their ability of sight but it was part of a well strategize plan being put into action. If Kiba would have known that, he probably would not have opened him mouth and did what he did.

Letting out a bark of laughter, Kiba mocked Haku. "You think this will actually stop me from attacking you? Newsflash to you, I don't use only my sight to find my opponents, but my nose as well. I can still find you with all of this mist around! You're hiding right over-" the dog-boy stated as he channeled his chakra into his nose to sniff out his opponent. It did not go quick how he planned for it though. Instead, Kiba's eyes widened when his nose was assaulted with Haku's scent _all around_ him. "-what the hell?!" the dog lover exclaimed, taking a step backwards because of his surprised state.

The mist seemed to evaporate and the crowd around them got a good view of what Kiba was taking about. Surrounding the Inuzuka were, what everybody assumed to be, bunshin. Some were standing up straight and tall while others were kneeling close to the ground. The only thing that they all had in common were the senbon held in between each of their figures, all of which were pointed towards the ground. It was apparent though that all of the bunshin would attack Kiba on a moments notice, but they seemed to be waiting for something before hand.

"What is this?!" Kiba shouted out, confused and frustrated as he looked left and right looking for the real Haku. "Bunshin don't have scents! But these all do! What's going on?!"

Smirking, Haku had to hold back a snicker from his hiding place in plain sight. His clones seemed to follow suit and it caused Kiba to grow even angrier than he already was. Not making a wise choice, Kiba rushed into the mass of clones and punched the first one he came in contacted with. When he did not fall through the body he had just hit and made solid contact with it, Kiba thought that he had found the real Haku on his first try. Nevertheless, much to his alarm, the body exploded into a mess of water.

"Water clones?" the dog lover whispered out of astonishment. He had thought, since Haku was a genin of Konoha that his bunshin would be the illusionary kind that they all learned in the Academy. He did not expect for the other to know a more advance form of the bunshin jutsu that came from outside of Konoha's gates. It was a shock to his system to see that Haku knew not one, but two jutsu from Kirigakure. The first one he thought was just a fluke that he knew the jutsu, it did not register to his mind that the other boy might know more moves that were from outside the Leaf Village. He had only prepared himself for facing a Leaf genin, not a Leaf genin with jutsu from other villages. If he had known that he would have taken the fight a lot more seriously than he had.

As if the slaying one of the water clones was the signal to begin, the clones all started to throw their senbon at Kiba and his puppy. Acting fast as to not be made a pincushion, the Inuzuka dodged the majority of the needles by jumping up high into the air. However, some had landed on him but not many, they all missed his vital organs thank Kami-sama. Akamaru, who still looked like Kiba, had followed his master's example and jumped up into the air as well. Missing the senbon, but as the two plummeted back down towards the ground, they knew they were going to get hit if they did not do something.

Grabbing another solider pill out of his jacket, Kiba threw one at Akamaru to eat while eating one himself. When he felt his chakra reserves were back up to normal and then some, the dog lover looked over at his henge puppy and grinned when he saw that the puppy was just as ready as he was. He could now put his plan into action.

"Gatsūga!" 

In all honesty, Kiba had thought that the Haku clones would try to dodge his attack as Haku had done before and throw their senbon at him. He was not prepared for them to do nothing of the sorts and to him; it seemed that they just let him destroy them. He had finally cooled down and was starting to think rationally for once. His suspicions were never proven correct or wrong, but with each clone that was destroyed, he had could not understand what was going on. He had still yet to find the real Haku and it was bothering him.

After destroying the last clone in sight, the Inuzuka and his dog looked around them wary, their back facing one another as to not be snuck up on. No matter where the two dogs looked, they could not find Haku for the life of them. It was as if he had just disappeared off the face of the arena. Suddenly, it seemed to become cold around him and Kiba watched in awe as some of the water on the ground started to rise up and formed the masked Haku. At first the dog-boy thought of it as another bunshin, because he had never heard of anyone being able to turn themselves into water and started to charge at the masked boy. However, halfway there, Kiba faltered when he say the brunette start to make hand seal. Mizu bunshin could not perform any chakra attacks, all of their attacks are physical based attacks. Meaning, this was the real Haku.

"Suirō no Jutsu." 

Kiba reacted instantly, before he was surrounded by the water prison, he used the Kawarimi and appeared in front of the startled Haku. With a chakra laced punch, the Inuzuka sent his hand into Haku's masked face and… Haku exploded into water. "What the _fuck?!_ A water clone?! But I saw it do a jutsu! Water clones cannot do jutsu! How is this possible?"

Haku's giggling surrounded the arena as the boy looked about bewildered and completely confuse as Haku's voice seemed to come out from nowhere at all. "That would be because it is a special type of Mizu Bunshin that my uncle created. They can do low level techniques confusing an opponent into thinking they are real. And now Inuzaku-san, you and your puppy will lose."

"How Dare You Talk Like That! You Haven't Defeated Me Yet!" Kiba screamed out looking for his opponent, but finding nothing, not even his scent. "Come Out And Fight Like A Man, You Coward!"

"Just because you can't find me doesn't mean I'm a coward," Haku's calm soft voice flowed about the room. "But if you're that desperate to find me, look down."

Snapping his head downwards, Kiba let out a gasp of surprise at what he saw. For underneath the Inuzuka was what he, and the rest of the spectators, could assume to be an ice mirror that was only two inches thick and had a measurement of four feet wide and six feet tall. However, what he was most surprised at was the fact that inside of the mirror was Haku, senbon in his right hand and his left hand was rapidly going through a set of one handed hand seals.

"Makyō Hyō Shō!" Haku whispered. The water surrounding the two Kibas came to life and started to form twenty-one more ice mirrors around them, Haku's image in each one. "It's over. Sensatsu Suishō!" 

The assault of the ice needles combined with regular senbon was something neither Kiba nor Akamaru was read for. Upon the first few hits of the senbon, Akamaru was sent flying towards the ground, the transformation coming undone and the puppy just was lying there, whimpering softly. It took more needles to take Kiba out, but it was done when one well aimed senbon hit a pressure point knocking Kiba unconscious immediately.

"Hayate-san, you might want to get Inuzuka-san and his puppy to the Medical Wing soon, those wounds might get infected if he you don't," Haku stated, coming out from the mirror he was in while the others dissolved back into water.

Coughing slightly, the examiner nodded his head. "Umm, okay… the winner…Haku…" Hayate spoke in between coughs as the medical staff rush out onto the arena and put Kiba on a stretcher with Akamaru resting on top of the boy's chest. Seeing that the other boy was being properly taken care of, Haku started to make his way up the stairs and back towards his brother and teammate when the next match was called that froze Haku in place. "Yakushi Kabuto vs. Gaara."

"Oh shit," Haku mumbled, his eyes wide open looking at the two in a little bit of fear, "this is not good-"

* * *

"-Not good at all," Naruto finished mumbling.

"You're telling me," Obito agreed with the blond boy, knowing fully well how much Gaara seemed to hate Kabuto. Obito just did not know why the redhead hated Kabuto. But if he did know that the _worm_ down there was working for the Snake Sannin like his brothers and he knew, Naruto doubt that he would be putting it that lightly. Gaara was going to tear that boy apart, without even breaking a sweat, and he was going to enjoy every minute of it. However, for some reason, the Pure One could not bring himself to care about the snaky boy even if he was all about forgiving people for their past mistakes. In his mind, he deserver it.

"What are you two going on about?" Rin asked, looking back and forth between Obito and Naruto.

"How should I put this?" Naruto asked, placing his finger to his lips and looked upwards as he thought. Something that Sasuke thought looked really cute on the blond. Seemingly coming to a conclusion, Naruto looked back at his team and Lee with a mixed expression that could not be read by the others. "Ani doesn't like Kabuto…at all."

Obito just seemed to snort at that answer and Kyuubi, still lying on Sasuke's head seemed to do the same thing. "That would be the understatement of the millennium. Gaara absolutely _hates_ Kabuto with a passion."

"I would have said loathes, but his way works too," Kyuubi commented, though only Sasuke and Naruto understood the remark while the others just heard the fox barking. _"There will be nothing left of him by the time this is over."_

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked, his question directed towards the kitsune on top of his head. However, seeing as nobody but he and Naruto could understand Kyuubi, they thought he was talking to his cousin.

"He means that if given the chance, Gaara will kill Kabuto," Haku answered before Obito could. Yet Sasuke was not sure if the pronoun he used was referring to Obito or Kyuubi, since one Uzumaki could talk to the fox and understand him, he figured the others could to. But judging by the way he was looking towards his little brother, the young Uchiha could not tell and decided to keep quiet and not ask what person he was talking about.

"But why would he hate his own teammate?" Lee asked, not understanding how one could loathe someone on the same team as they were. He was trained by Gai to think of his teammates like his family and he could not comprehend other teams functioning in different ways than his own. The bowl cut haired boy did not truly understand things such like that, he it just did not make sense to him. Haku knew this though and gave him a reassuring smile after he pulled his mask off and stored it in his weapon's pouch.

"You have a rivalry with Neji-san, do you not Lee-san?" the ice boy asked sweetly, confusing the other boy more at the change of topics, but answered positively anyways. "And you fight with him from time to time, right?" A nod. "You're teamwork skills, are they good as well?" Another nod. "Well like you and Neji-san, Gaara and Kabuto have a rivalry of kinds, one that only involves hate and loathing. Like your rivalry with Neji-san, they can still work together as teammates, but unlike you Gaara holds no trust in Kabuto. It is because Kabuto has never given us a reason to trust him and he has done some pretty odd things that give us even more of a reason not to trust him." Haku explained to the boy as best he could, but he could not really put it into words without giving up the fact that Kabuto was a traitor to all of Konoha and not just their team.

"Oh," Lee simply said, not understanding why their team was so different than his. Yet the boy did understand it. He understood that there was something more to the story that he did not know about and that was the real reason Gaara simply loathed Kabuto. He was not sure what it was, but, for some reason, Lee knew it had to be a good reason for why it would seem that neither of the brothers liked their own teammate.

"This is going to be one bloody match," Arashi commented and the others agreed. From what they just heard about the two opponents, it was going to be an interesting match. They just did not know how interesting it was going to be. Obito had some sense that it was going to be a big thing, having known the three brothers longer, but even he did not know how far it would go. The only ones that did were the other two present Uzumakis in the room and a little red fox demon resting on top of the youngest Uchiha's head.

"Let Shinigami-sama have mercy on your soul, for Ani will show you none," Naruto whispered as his eyes seemed to glow before going back to normal.

"What was that Naruto?" Sakura asked, hearing the blood whisper something but she could not catch what it was said. The boy just looked at her with a happy foxy smile while shaking his head and mumbling and about it being nothing before looking back towards the arena. Staring at the boy for a little longer, the cherry blossom had a strange feeling that something weird had just occurred and she was the only one that noticed it, for everyone else was staring transfixed at the battlefield below them. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Sakura shrugged her shoulders before looking back towards the arena herself; brushing of the feeling she had before and decided not to think twice about it.

* * *

Using his sands, Gaara transported himself down onto the arena and looked up towards the place he had just vacated where Kabuto know stood. "Don't keep me waiting."

It was said with as much emotions as a grain of sand had, but the glaring of his eyes told of worlds of pain. Kabuto did not needed to be told twice to do things, yet this time; he was considering making an exception for this. He did not know why he was scared, the last time he was scare was when he first meet Orochimaru, he thought he had known all about the boy and all of his fighting capabilities. However, he did not feel that way anymore. Kabuto did not know if that was because he had lost his nin-cards or if it was because he had seemingly failed to gather all information on his two teammates like he thought he did.

He did not know if it was because of his new found ability to be scared of Gaara, but he just then realized that he never knew why the other boy carried around that giant gourd on him. It could not be fore training purposes, it was too bulky to be for training purposing and he could always set something smaller and less noticeable than that. Yet that still did not help him. He still did not know what the gourd was for and Kabuto had a bad feeling that he was going to find out in the fight what exactly the thing was for. He also had the feeling he was not going to like it one bit.

Slowly, hoping to prolong as much as possible, Kabuto made his way down the steps and towards the arena. Once he was on the arena, the traitor of Konoha felt the residue of his first teammate's battle. The air was heavy and moist unlike he was used to and it made him feel sick. It just seemed to remind him even more that he had failed to gather all the information possible on Uzumaki Haku. He had never seen the boy use such techniques before and he had never knew that the boy had a bloodline limit. All of which were important information that he had failed to gather and if he did so with one brother, he felt like he did so with all the Uzumakis.

"All right, then… Let the seventh round match-" Hayate shouted while trying, and failing, not to cough, "-begin."

With those words, Kabuto felt like his death warrant had been written and signed. He was sure of it.

Knowing how Gaara worked, Kabuto decided to attack first since he knew better than to let the redhead boy have the upper hand. Pulling a curved kunai out of his weapons pouch, the traitor ran towards his teammate with the hopes of a short range combat. In none of the few missions they had together to work on their teamwork before they took the exam, Gaara had ever fought short range battles. The redhead was always fighting long range with weapons and Doton jutsu. Another thing he found strange about the boy, he used mostly earth based attacks and hardly any of the attacks Konoha shinobi were known for. Haku was the same way, only he used water jutsu and not earth ones.

Smirking at his cleverly thought out plan, Kabuto did not realize one fatal mistake. Gaara was not even trying to avoid his attack nor was he trying to defend himself. He just stood there with his arms crossed and glaring at Kabuto. It was not until he was almost right upon the smaller boy that Kabuto noticed that there was something that was not right, but by then it was too late. A smirk had graced its way onto the usually emotionless boy and he let his hands fall to his sides.

"Now you will see what I'm truly capable of," Gaara stated flatly.

At those words the gourd behind the redhead started to pour out sand, but the sands did not fall to the ground. No, instead they went around Gaara and straight towards the one attacking him. Kabuto.

It was by sheer luck alone that Kabuto was able to get out of the way of the attack. He did not think he would make it in time while he was pouring as much chakra as he could -not to mention as fast as he could- into his legs, using that to jump out of the way. Huffing and puffing, even though the battle had just begun, the traitor looked through glassed covered eyes towards his teammate. The redhead was slowly advancing towards him with a purposeful stroll. His back was straight and he held the perfect posture, one that seemed to shout power. His green eyes surrounded by black seemed to stand out even more as the sands whipped around the teen while walking towards him, but the sands never touched the boy.

Not wanting to see what the sands would do to him if they got a hold of him, Kabuto threw his curved kunai at Gaara while reaching into his weapons pouch and throwing two handfuls of shuriken. He could only watch in slight horror that none of his weapons managed to hit the other. All of them were deflected and stopped by the sands. Nothing got by and Gaara was still coming at him.

Thinking quickly, the traitor thought that Gaara was controlling the sands with his will alone and that if he was distracted that it would leave an opening for him to take the other down. It was a well thought out plan, but now, all he needed was a distraction. But what?

"GO! ANI!! YOU CAN BEAT HIM!!!" a cheer from the gallery made the worm look over. Upon spotting the other two Uzumaki brothers standing side by side, the youngest cheering for Gaara, a wicked smile spread across his face. Kabuto knew exactly what he was going to do to distract the advancing, homicidal looking redhead. Genjutsu was always something that he was good at, since he had great chakra control. He just never found the use for it, up until now.

Smirking, the little worm grabbed a fistful of shurikens and through them towards Gaara once again. This time aiming for his face. When the sand moved to block the incoming projectiles, Kabuto took that time to enable the jutsu he had in mind. It was rather easy and the older boy could not believe that this was going to be this easy. Why was he so scared in the first place? He could not remember and thought it was stupid of him for being so scared of the boy. He was not Orochimaru's right hand man for nothing after all.

As Gaara continued to advance on Kabuto, he suddenly saw, more than felt, the arena around him flicker and then it started to change. Like black paint thrown on an already painted canvas, the walls and the scenery around him start to flow downwards as a never ending black took its place. The only thing around him was himself, his sand, and the arena he stood upon. At first he did not know what was going on, but he had a pretty good guess. Genjutsu. That, or some kind of freaky new ninjutsu that he had never seen before. One thing was for sure, he knew he was not going to like whatever was going to happen.

And he was right.

Gaara suddenly found that the arena had been boxed in and on each of the walls and the ceiling were different scenes that were being played out. But they were not just any scenes. They were his memories. Memories of him when he was just a child, before he met Naruto, when everyone hated him and called him a demon. It was the times when his father treated him like a weapon and not his own son. It was the time that he hated the most in his life. However, if Kabuto thought that these memories were going to make him break down or something of the sorts, he was sadly mistaken.

He had long since gotten over the fact that he was a demon. Actually, he was not a demon, just a demon's container. It did not bother him anymore neither did it hurt to think about it. He came to accept the fact that he had a demon inside of him and he actually like it. It was because of his demon, Shukaku, that he was able to control earth based jutsu with ease and he had a mastery over sands. It was also because of the one-tailed demon that Gaara was picked by Shina to be one Naruto's guardians. But the Pure One being himself would have none of that and made him his brother instead. Something that he would not give up for the world.

These memories did not affect him in the lest. It just showed him how closed-minded people really were. Where there was an innocent child standing in front of them pleading for help, they just saw a monster that they feared because they could not control it. In all reality, Naruto had shown him that they were the true demons by the way they acted and not him. Not even demons treated others that way, for demons were not like he had been taught to believe. Demons did not attack unless they felt their life was threaten or the lives of their pack. Humans feared what they could not comprehend and they did not comprehend demons. In fear, humans attack them and demons defend themselves, but that is never how the story goes.

'Of course not, humans are self-centered creatures that have no respect for anyone else but themselves.'

'Not all humans are like that, Shukaku, and you know it,' Gaara mentally told the demon residing in his body.

'Che! That's what you say! I bet you can't even name one human that is not a self-centered narrow minded fool,' Shukaku challenged his container. 

Gaara was seriously tempted to roll his eyes, but refrained himself from doing so. 'Hmm, let's see. There's me, Haku, Zabuza-ojisan, Tsunade-baachan, Aunt Shizune, and Naruto.'

'Feh! You my boy, aren't completely human thanks to me, you have demon blood running through your veins now, so you don't count. Haku has the blood of a megami no koori, so he does not count either. As for Naruto, he is a Pure One for Kami-sama's sake!' the Ichibi went on about how Pure One's were an exception to that rule and besides he had the Inaris' blood, Tenshi's blood, and some of Kyuubi's blood flowing through his veins. He was a walking contradiction in himself, having demonic and angelic blood flowing through his veins for heaven's sake. 

'What about the others?' the redhead mentally asked, stopping the demon from going any further with his ranting and raving about his little brother. 'Do you have an excuse for them as well?'

It was quiet for a little while, the tanuki trying to find a way to prove himself right, but coming up with nothing. **'No. But don- That Son Of A _Bitch_!'** Shukaku howled upon using Gaara's eyes to look out at the surrounding _torture_ that Kabuto tried to put him through with his genjutsu that the two were ignoring up until now. Coming back to his senses as well, the redhead looked around at what had made the tanuki so mad and his blood began to boil. It seemed that the genjutsu went from memories to fake illusions when it did not get the reaction it wanted.

****

"I'm going to kill him!!" the tanuki and his container's voice seemed to overlap one another as the words were spoken out loud for the first time. 

With a burst of demonic chakra, Gaara quickly made work of the genjutsu surrounding him and brought himself back to reality. It was a little after the time that Kabuto had already learned the hard way that the boy's sands were not being controlled by his will power but seemed to have a mind of their own. His sands, as a defense reflex had surrounded him in a sphere of sand to stop any attacks the traitor sent at Gaara. Kabuto, at the time when Gaara unleashed some of his demonic chakra, had thrown a dozen or so kunai at the barricade of sand with explosive notes on each and set them off. So when the redhead released his chakra, it seemed like it was apart of the exploding notes and Kabuto had figured he had won.

"And to think that I thought you would be more of a challenge than this," the traitor casually commented, watching the smoke in front of him slow start to dissipate. It was because of this that he did not notice the grains of sand on the ground starting to crawl their way towards the boy. He did not even feel it when the sands started to engulf his feet and up his legs. The idiot finally started to notice the sands when he tried to take a step forward and found the task impossible. Looking down, the worm found that his legs were completely trapped by then and it was starting to move up towards his waist. Jerking his head up after feeling the sudden presence before him, Kabuto came face to face with a murderous, enraged redhead.

But what freak Kabuto out the most were his eyes, which he was sure only he could see. They were not his normal green color, but yellow with a diamond shaped pupil and four dots surrounding the black diamond. He did not know how the boy's eyes had change nor why, but he did know one thing. Those were the Ichibi no Shukaku's eyes. He had seen them in an ancient book once and thought of them as nothing to be frightened of, but seeing them up close and with that much rage in the eyes, Kabuto changed his mind.

****

"Don't you ever, ever! threaten my brothers' lives like that ever again, you traitorous worm!" Gaara growled out, just low enough for only the squirming worm to hear, his voiced mixed in with that of Shukaku's. **_"You will pay with your life for what you have done."_**

With that, Gaara used his Sabaku Kyū combined with Sabaku Sōsō and, for lack of a better word, liquefied Kabuto. His blood was pouring out the bottom of the sands and onto the arena. Only then, when there was nothing more flowing from his sands did Gaara let his sands go back into his gourd and his eyes changed back to their original color. 

"This match is over," Gaara told Hayate in a monotone voice. Seeing the man just numbly nod his head, Gaara used his sands once again to transport himself to stand right behind his two brothers. Both of which turned around when they felt his presence right behind him.

"Do I even want to know what that was all about?" Haku asked, referring to the last part of his match, with a raised eyebrow. The other around them seemed to scoot a little closer, trying to hear the answer for what they had just witnessed, but trying to do it discreetly. They were not very good at it though, that or the three brothers just were very good shinobi and notice it right away.

"No," the redhead deadpanned.

* * *

The next match was not very interesting compared to Gaara's, but it was interesting enough to keep the others watching. Shikamaru demonstrated on the Oto nin, Kin, how smart he really was by totally defeating her while making a fool of herself. It was funnier to watch Shikamaru's fight than Gaara's, yet the redhead's was more intense than the lazy deer's fight. It was also during the lazy genius's fight that Naruto notice two men that almost looked exactly alike, walk into the room.

Both of them had long dark brown, almost black, hair that seem to go to their waist and went straight down their backs. Their eyes head no pupils and were white all around with a hint of color that looked like lavender. The two men both wore traditional robes that looked very expensive and extravagant. The only thing that was different between the two was that one had a pale cream cloth tied around his forehead and the other did not. Upon landing eyes on the two men, Naruto knew who they were instantly. Hyuuga Hiashi, the one without the cloth around his head, the head of the Hyuuga clan and Hinata's father and Hyuuga Hizashi, the one with the cloth, the father of Neji.

Naruto had to wonder why the two were there, but when he saw the next match setup, he understood.

Hyuuga Hinata vs. Hyuuga Neji.

It was a fight against the main house and the branch house. A fight that the head of the clan and the head of the branch house would not want to miss. It also help that it was their children were the ones fighting and they wanted to watch them. It was no surprise that they were there anyways; the preliminaries were opened to all clan heads to come if they wished. It was just that no one really ever took the time in going to them because they all thought that their son or daughter would end up in the final matches and would see them then. The heads of clans were always over confident in their own abilities and the abilities of their children.

Turning his head back to the battlefield, Naruto noticed that the examiner had already told them to begin, yet neither one of them had move an inch. Instead they were just talking, their voices echoed off of the walls in the otherwise silent room. Everyone strained to hear what the two were saying, none wanting to miss what was going on. It was thankful to him being the Heir of Foxes that he could hear them perfectly, which put a smile on his face.

"Before we begin, there is something I would like to point out Hinata-sama," Neji's voice flowed strongly throughout the room, no one having to try hard and catch what he was saying. He spoke loudly and full of confidence, almost like he was royalty or someone that was beyond the status he had. "You're not cut out to be a shinobi! Withdraw from the match!"

Meek Hinata tried to say something but her voice did not look like it would let her. 'No, Neji just did not give her the time to answer,' Naruto thought to himself as he listen to Neji rant even more.

"You're all sweetness and light. A peacemaker, not a troublemaker," the branch member pointed out rather harshly, "you're easily led, you're not a leader. You have no self-confidence and have a world-class inferiority complex, so I know you'd be more comfortable and content staying at the genin level. However, the Chunnin Exam are taken as a group and you did not want to let your teammates down. You have been reluctant form the start, haven't you?"

"N-no… you're wrong. I… I really wanted to take the exams," the Hyuuga heiress mumbled softly, everyone around having to strain their ears in order to hear what the girl was saying. "I wanted to challenge myself. So of my own volition, I volunteered to take the test."

This just seemed to send Neji into a long speech on how Hinata was a failure and would always be a failure, because that was how fate and destiny worked. Naruto had tried, and failed, from keeping himself from snorting at the very thought of what the Hyuuga boy was saying. Fate and Destiny? Really there were no such things. There were no gods or goddesses control their lives and planning everything out like the Hyuuga explained. The only one that followed fate and destiny were the ones that don't know that there is no such thing. They are the ones that don't know that one creates their own fate and destiny and Neji was one of them.

It was then that the fight began. Both of the Hyuuga cousins took the same exact fight stance. Both of them had their Byakugan activated. And both of them were going at it.

To any on looker that was not skilled in the shinobi arts, they would have thought that the two cousins were just barely hitting the other or not even hit them at all as they fought. However, this was not the case. In both of their moves were connecting with the others body. Each were trying to close off the other's chakra points to either kill, in Neji's case, or seriously wound the other so they could not fight anymore. The fight was one that many watched with interest. It was once in a lifetime battle after all and none wanted to miss a single moment. But it did not stop them from talking and one conversation caught Naruto's attention.

Hiashi and Hizashi's conversation.

"What are you saying? Are you saying that your own daughter is weak?" Hizashi asked his brother in confusing and surprised that he was actually calling his first born daughter weak.

"A leopard does not change its spots. A failure is always fails," the older Hyuuga brother stated impassively. It was then it dawned on Naruto that Hiashi clan was the reason Neji believed so strongly in fate and destiny. He was just following the example that the head of the Hyuuga presented the boy unknowingly. He was the reason the younger Hyuuga boy was so closed minded and could not see what was truly going on before him. Neji seemed to think that the future was written in stone when it was not.

However, what angered the Heir of Foxes even more was the way her own father talked down about her. Sure he was the head of his clan and had a lot of responsibilities on his shoulders, but this was _his_ daughter for Kami-sama's sake! He was supposed to help and guide her to do better and not talk down on her. If she was lacking as much as he made it out, then why did he not help her? Why did he not take the time to work with her in the skills she was lacking in? He knew for a fact that Hizashi had taken the time to personally train his son, he had watch them on more than one occasion train together when he was passing by the training grounds they used on his way home. Naruto could tell that those two Hyuugas had a great father-son relationship. It just went to show how much Hiashi truly cared about his relationship with his daughter.

Naruto was clenching the safety railing; his knuckles were turning white as he watched the match below. It seemed that Hinata was losing, but she was not going down without a fight. She would not let Neji have an easy win. Every time he would knock the girl down, she would just get back up once again. Her body was battered and bruised, but her will kept her going and made her get back up after she was knocked down. Neji did not even seem the least bit at all fazed by the Hyuuga heiress actions; Neji thought that she was only delaying the inevitable. He said that fate and destiny had already decided the winner of the match and it was not her.

"She cannot even defeat her own younger sister. She disgraces the name of the Hyuuga clan," the Pure One heard Hiashi stated, continuing on with his conversation. Hearing every word of disapproval and stab at the Hyuuga girl's name caused Naruto's blood to boil. Hinata did not deserve such words from him, even if it was her father. No one deserved such words, lest of all from their own flesh and blood. It was it just was not right. "You own son, would better suit to be the clan heir than Hinata."

It did not help that Naruto also caught the end of another of Neji's speeches to Hinata at the same time. "…withdrawal, Hinata-sama, you cannot win. You're doomed to fail."

Hearing both of the destiny and fate influenced Hyuugas going on about how Hinata was nothing but a failure just made Naruto want to prove them wrong. He did not like the way those two idiots did not see what was right in front of their face all along and it when to show how idiotic they could really be. Both of them never noticed how truly special the Hyuuga heiress really was. Out of all the Hyuuga there, Naruto thought that only Hizashi saw her for what she truly was. An authentic shinobi of the Village Hidden in the Leafs. And it was high time that the other two Hyuugas learned it.

"HINATA!" the Pure One yelled, catching not only Hinata's attention but everyone else's attention in arena. "Drop it."

The girl looked surprised at first, just like everyone else in the room that did not understand what he was talking about, but then a determined look crossed her face. What she did next not only amazed many members of Konoha, but also baffled them as well. The girl talked back. And not in her usually shy and timid voice either. There was no stuttering. There was no lack of self-confidence. There was no sign that this was the same belittled Hyuuga heiress of before. She actually talked back. Her voice was full of confidence and authority that made many of the genin feel like they were in the presence of high nobility.

"And what if I don't want to?" Hinata asked, sounding annoyed, while she looked up at the blond haired boy in the gallery. "What then?"

A mischievous grin crossed the Heir of Foxes' face as his eyes were hidden from view when they curved upwards along with the grin. "Then I'll drive your boyfriend insane."

His comment earned him a glare from two different people, one of them being the Hyuuga heiress herself, and a chuckle from Haku. Another surprise too many of the people in the room, but Naruto could not tell if it was because she had a glare that could rival Sasuke's or if it was because he had revealed to many that the girl had already gotten herself a boyfriend. What pleased the Pure One the most though, was the fact that Hiashi seemed to have a permit look of surprise and confusion planted on his face at the moment. Surprised that his daughter was acting not like her usual self at all and confusion on what had happened to her.

"Like you don't already drive Gaara-kun insane with worry as it is," the Byakugan girl countered. "Nice try, Naru-chan, but it's not going to work and don't give me that look either!" Hinata scolded Naruto when he started to pout at having his nicknamed used in front of so many people. "Besides, what's in it for me?"

"A non-insane boyfriend?" the blond genin asked, but upon seeing her disapproving look, he decided to move on to something else. Trying a different route, the Pure One decided to use bribery. "A kiss from Ani?"

Before even Gaara could object to his little brother's offering, which was not made with his approval, Hinata sealed the deal. "Deal! In exchange for my mask, I get a kiss from Gaara-kun when I win. Fair enough for me."

Leaning back, as he had been leaning over the railing while bargaining with Hinata, Naruto got a smack to his head from Gaara, but the boy just looked at him with a smile on his face and nothing more. He knew he deserved it, but he could not help but think it was well worth it. Watching, the Hyuuga girl slowly untie her hitai-ate from around her neck and moving it up before retying it around her forehead, he knew this was going to be worth it. The Pure One also could not help but smile when she reached in her pocket before taking out and eating one of the special solider pills that Gaara had given to her as a gift.

Everyone watched in amazement when all the wounds the girl had seemed to heal up instantly and the Hyuuga twins eyes widened when they saw that all the chakra points that Neji had closed were opened up instantly. Chakra pouring throughout her whole body, replenishing her supplies. It was a wonder what a little tanuki chakra could do when capsulized within a solider pill. Finally, when all her wounds were finished healing, Hinata slowly unzipped the jacket she was wearing to reveal a mature body for her age and a tight black tee-shirt covering her. Taking off the jacket, she throw it aside and the crowed gasped when it formed a fairly big crater.

"Let the fun begin!" Hinata commented joyfully, as she fell back into the Gentle Fist stance, or what at least look to be the Gentle Fist stance. However, everyone could tell that there was something off about the stance when Neji also fell into the same stance. Where the two once looked identical to each other, there was now a difference. Now, instead of her hands being held out flat, her middle and forefinger were pointed outwards while the others were curled in slightly, but not all the way. Her body was now lower to the ground and her right leg had the majority of the her weight resting upon it while her left leg was further out in front of her than Neji's was.

Within a blink of the eye, the battle had begun again. Neji was the first attack and he was not aiming to play around anymore. He seemed to understand that what had just transpired was not going to be the best for him. It was the reason why he was aiming his next, and what he considered was going to be his last, attack towards Hinata's heart. He forced enough chakra into his hands to make sure that when, not if, he hit the girl, she would not be fighting any longer. In fact, if the med nins did not get to the girl in time, she would die with how much chakra the Hyuuga genius had put into the attack.

Neji was not expecting Hinata to see through his plans. When he was only a distance away from her, Hinata pushed her weight on her right leg forward and onto her leg out stretched leg. It was because she was lower to the ground than normal that Neji miscalculated his attack and it was because of this that she was able to bypass his attack. By coming towards him at an upper wards angle, she missed his attack and had an opening for her own. Focusing her chakra into her middle and forefinger on her right hand, the girl was able to swiftly hit two pressure points. Only Neji thought she was aiming for his chakra points and was smug because he could tell she missed them.

The Hyuuga genius was very confused when Hinata, right after his attack, just stood up straight like nothing happened and there was not a match going on. However, when he tried to move he found it impossible. Smiling a happy smile at Neji, Hinata gave him a little wave before delivering a roundabout backwards high kick. The branch member of the Hyuuga clan was sent flying and when he came to a skidding halt, it was obvious he was not getting up.

"The winner Hyuuga Hinata!" Hayate announced, trying not to gap in surprise that the kind hearted Hyuuga girl had just taken out the destiny and fate driven boy with only two moves.

However, Naruto did not think that anyone's face could compare with Hiashi's at the moment. The man was looking at his daughter clearly stunned. He had lost all his composure that he seemed to have had before and was now just openly gaping. His eyes were so wide that they looked like they were about to fall out of his eye sockets and he was so pale that he looked like he was just told he was going to die at any second. His brother looked a lot better than he did at the moment. Hizashi was actually smiling brightly, even though his son had just lost, he felt proud that Hinata had shown the world what she was really made of.

Naruto just was not sure what he was more surprised about, the fact that Hinata was a whole of a hell lot stronger than he had ever imaged or that she was dating his brother. His brothers might not have had a big reputation in Konoha, them wanting to stay low just incase the Destroyer was looking for him, but after the display that Gaara had just shown off, anybody could see that he was strong. Really strong. They just did not know how strong that he really was. Hiashi might have also been surprise that, at the very moment, Hinata was currently kiss the otherwise emotionless redhead, but being so close to Gaara, and knowing him the best, Naruto could see a slight smirk on his brother's face.

"What just happened?" Sakura asked, finally voicing her growing confusion.

"Hinata just beat her cousin," the blond replied, turning away from the still kissing couple, happily.

"I think we can all see that, Naru-chan, but I don't think that was what she meant," Haku said, ruffling his little brother's already unruly hair as he pouted at being called Naru-chan, _again_. "You want to know about her sudden change in attitude and her new found skills, am I right?" Seeing the others nod, the ice boy went on. "It's quite simple really, she's been wearing a mask, metaphorically speaking. Hinata-chan has been training with us longer than she has been Gaara's girlfriend, which has nearly been a year. At the begin, she was just like the mask she wears, a shy, self-confident girl that was not very talented at the shinobi arts. However, with just helping her gain self-confidence she improved her skills all on her own pretty much. She just did not want to show anyone before the last stage of the Chunnin Exams, wanting to have everyone underestimate her. It was just by chance that she was paired up with Neji right away."

"So let me get this straight, she has had this all planned out for how long now? A little under a year?" Kakashi asked, trying to get everything straight with what was happening.

"Actually, it has been a little over a year, but yea, I've had this planned out for sometime now," Hinata answered, coming to stand beside Haku with Gaara on her other side after they had finished her victory kiss. Before anyone else could ask another question, Hayate's voice rang out through the room, announcing the next match.

"Kankuro vs. Uzumaki Naruto vs. Temari."

* * *

Thanks for all the reviews and the constructive critisism.

Please don't murder me for everything taking so long...

**_Shi no Tenshi 902_**


	23. Final Match: Naruto's Fight

Gomen-nasai for the wait... school is a killer and my laptop battery is dieing -shortening the time I can work on my stories- and I have yet to get a new one. But I hope this makes up for the lateness.

* * *

He had forgotten. In all of the excitement of Hinata's match, he had forgotten the rules for the last match. The last match was to be a one-on-one-on-one match and he did not realized with all that was going on that his name had yet to be called out for a match of his own. He had not realized that he was going to take part in the three-way battle when his name had failed to be called on the last round, too wound up in the things the Hyuugas were saying. He also failed to realize that he was going to be facing Gaara's real siblings until his name had been called.

Naruto had an unease feeling in his stomach. This was not going to be good. Not good at all. Giving his brothers an unease look, the Pure One saw the worry in their eyes and watched the way they both gave him an ill at eased smile. Smiling back as best as he could, he jumped up onto the railing, intending to jump down to the arena below. However, before he could, Sasuke stopped him.

"Aren't you forgetting something, Naruto?" the raven asked when he turned his towards the younger of the two Uchihas present and pointing up towards the fox that was now sitting up on his head ready for battle. Smiling sadly, Naruto shook his head no.

"No, Kyuubi's going to sit this one out," the blond explained, sounding a bit sad. "Would you hold onto him for be during the match? I don't want him to jumping in. Please?"

"**What**?! You can't fight without me! I'm supposed to protect you!" Kyuubi howled his discontent, jumping off Sasuke's head and trying to follow the blond. Trying being the keyword. Before he could even make it to the ground, Sasuke acting on reflexes grab the fox kittling in midair and held him tightly to his chest in his arms. That only resulted in the fox biting and scratching the boy trying to get free. 

"I'll hold onto him-" the raven started to say, but he was interrupted by the thrashing and howling kitsune in his arms.

"I hate you Sasuke! You're supposed to let me protect him! Not encourage him to do dangerous things!" the kitsune yelp out. 

"-if you give me a good reason too," Sasuke finished, causing Kyuubi to stop thrashing about in his arms and look up at him with an understanding look. He was not trying to prevent the fox from helping and protecting the Heir of Foxes and he was also giving Naruto the chance to explain why he did not want Kyuubi interfering. If it were not a good enough reason for the Uchiha -and Kyuubi if he had any say in it- then he would not hold the fox back. However, if he did have a valid reason, he would hold onto the fox.

"Because, for all my life I've always had someone else's help, be it my family's or my team's I've never done anything alone. I just want to show everyone that's help me how much I have improved thanks to their help. I also want to prove to myself that I can do things all on my own," the Pure One explained. The emotions that passed across his face as he spoke, told the others how strongly he felt about this. He seemed to have a maturity to him that was of someone far beyond his real age. It made him look so older at that moment. The way he expressed his feelings had the others awed and there seemed to be an unusual wisdom about him. Yet when he smiled, the age seemed to vanish and innocence took its place, but he still had hints of that unnatural maturity and wisdom around him if one were to really look at him.

"Alright," Sasuke said, still slightly awed at the blond's earlier appearance. It just seemed to shock the Uchiha to see the usually carefree boy having an aura of maturity and wisdom that far surpass those war-torn shinobi that had seen way too many deaths in his or her days. "I'll hold on to Kyuubi for you, but if anything goes wrong, I'm releasing him. Sounds fair?"

The Heir of Foxes knew for a fact that Sasuke had entered delegator mood and he would not going to be back down, but he was going to take what he could get. "Okay, it's a fair deal."

"Good luck," Sakura encouraged the blond, giving him a reassuring smile while the other members of his team behind her all gave him reassurance as well. Even Kyuubi, who still somewhat upset that he would not be fighting with the Pure One, gave his support to the blond, even if it was rather reluctantly.

"Thanks," Naruto said, truly grateful for the others support. With that, the Heir of Foxes jumped off the railing and down to the arena where the two Suna shinobi were waiting for him. This was going to be a big match for him.

"This fight is as good as won," Kankuro boasted. "The little pipsqueak doesn't stand a chance against us."

"You forget this is a three way match," Naruto pointed out to the other boy. "That means that only one of us will be able to move on and it's not just me you have to worry about."

Kankuro just laughed, long and loudly, and Naruto noted dully that it was not a pleasant sound either. "Do you really think that we would fight one another while you are still standing? We are teammates after all. We take care of problems together before we fight with one another, but you won't last long against us!"

"_Don't_ underestimate me!" Naruto growled, waiting for the examiner to get the fight underway.

"The tenth, and final, match of the preliminaries, Kankuro vs. Uzumaki Naruto vs. Temari," Hayate said a complete sentence without coughing. "Begin."

"Gladly," Temari answered, pulling off her fan from her back and looking towards the other genin of Sand. "Would you like the honors of going first, Kankuro? Or can I?"

"You can," the boy answered, knowing that if he did not let her go first, he would probably regret it later in one way or another.

Smirking at the go ahead, Temari opened her fan up all the way. She was not going to waist her time on the little pipsqueak blond-haired brat, she just wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible. Temari could not help it; she was actually a bit nervous. Not because of the brat, but because of the fact that she had over heard that the redhead with the sand was the boy's brother. Something about that kid struck a never in her and she could not help but feel nervous around him. In all the information that had been given to her before she took the Chunnin Exams, Temari found that not a single piece of it helped her identify who the redhead was. She only knew his name because of his match with Kabuto.

Gaara.

The name itself seemed to bring something out from within her. Made her feel almost nostalgic. But she there was no reasonable explanation of why she felt that way. It was as if she was trying to call upon suppressed memories. That or it could be that they were memories from when she was just a child; recalling childhood memories were always hard for her and Kankuro. It could have very well been a combination of both, being suppressed memories from when she was a child. If that was so, it was no wonder she was having a hard time recalling her memory she sought.

"Fūsajin no Jutsu," Temari called out the jutsu's name as the wind created from the combination of her fan and chakra began to stir. The effect was instant, a strong gust of wind picked up sand and dust from around the room, causing a small dust storm. The wind causing Naruto to cover his eyes and keep the debris out of them. However, his unprotected arms that were not covered by his arm armor became raw and scratched up from the sand particle blowing about. It cause a few shallow cut on his arms to bleed out, but mostly the skin on his arms were irritating and a raw red. The attack was over momentarily.

Nevertheless, once one attack was over, Temari did not give Naruto anytime to prepare for her next assault. "Kamaitachi no Jutsu."

Naruto was still recovering from the first attack and with the second attack right on the first's heels, the blond did not have time to dodge the attack. The powerful winds caught him in a small whirlwind that seemed to have blades of wind within them that proceeded to cut Naruto from all sides. The wind also took a hold of the boy's small frame and lifted him up off the ground. With a command from its mistress, the winds threw Naruto into a nearby wall. His body making a sickening pop and cracked the wall itself before the winds dissipated. When there was no more winds to hold him up, Naruto crumpled up on the ground.

That was not enough to keep him down thought. Pushing himself up, Naruto looked over towards the two Suna shinobi to see that they looked impassive as ever. Neither one of them seemed surprise that he was able to pull himself up after such an attack, but rather agitated because he was getting back up. Observing that the blonde was readying her fan once again, Naruto decided that it was best that he moved, now. It did not go as he planned however, for as he scrambled to his feet and tried to move out of the way, he found himself falling. The debris scattered about the arena from Temari's earlier attack had caused the floor to become very slippery, something Naruto was not counting on.

Falling forwards because of the even terrain underneath him, Naruto was once again caught within the blonde's attack. More cuts appeared on his skin and his clothes became very holey. He was thrown into the wall for a second time, causing yet another crack in the wall besides the first. A groan escaped his lips, not of pain, but aggravation for being caught by the same trick twice; still he did not have long to berate himself since Temari had sent yet another attack in his direction.

Thinking fast, the blond boy channeled his chakra to his hands and feet before pushing himself off the ground using his chakra covered hands to increase the amount of kinetic energy behind the action. The result sent Naruto flying high up into the air, high enough for his chakra cover feet to attract themselves to the ceiling of the room. With his action of self-preservation, the Heir of Foxes was sure that he had avoided the attack and he had, for a moment. He just did not see Temari redirect the attack up at him with a little bit of chakra to manipulate the winds. In an instant, he was surrounded by the cutting winds for a third time.

Again, he was cut from all sides form the winds. Again, they tore at his body. But this time, since he was concentrating on his chakra, he did not have room for losing focus. In a spit second that diverted his attention away from his chakra of staying stuck to the ceiling towards the winds slicing and ripping at his already raw skin, Naruto lost focus of his chakra control. That one second was all it took though. With the lapse of chakra to his feet that enabled him to deny the laws of gravity, his body succumbed to gravitation force and plummeted to the ground.

It appeared as if Naruto was not going to catch a break. Before he could even hit the ground, Temari sent another wind attack his way, one without the wind blades that sent him flying in a different. It just so happened that the direction the blonde sent Naruto flying in had Kankuro standing there, waiting for him. With a roundhouse kick, the painted face genin hit the Heir of Foxes in the stomach and he went crashing to the ground. Reflexively, Naruto realized that there was chakra behind the kick. There was no other reason that he could have been sent skidding that far across the ground otherwise.

Naruto pushed himself on to his hands and knees with a groan, coughing up a bit of blood along the way. Wiping the blood away with the back of his hand, the Pure One brought his hand back down to look at the small trickle of blood on his hand. A small grin made its way across his face and the blond tried his best to hold back his laughter.

"Is that the best you can do?" the Heir of Foxes mocked the Suna shinobi.

"I wouldn't be so cocky if I were you, kid," Kankuro sneered. "You have yet to land a hit on either of us with any type of attack."

Naruto tried not to snort at his comment. He had yet to even attack them, course he had not landed an attack on them. Idiot. But he might as well taunt the older boy. "My Obaa-chan hits harder than you."

That got his attention and did it make him mad. His face looked to be turning red from the comment, but Naruto really could not tell because of all the face pain the other boy was wearing. It got in the way. Nonetheless, Pure One could have sworn by Inari-kaasan and Inari-jiji that he saw steam coming out from either sides of his headwear his ears would be. Yet, what he loved the most about his own comment was the fact that it was true. Tsunade definitely hit harder than he did, he just did not needed to know that she was a Sannin. The thought caused a smile to spread across his face, which seemed to further enrage Kankuro.

"Why you!" Kankuro roared grapping the bundle off his back and swinging it around in front of him to rest on the ground. "You'll wish you'd never said that!"

"The truth hurts, doesn't it?" the Heir of Foxes asked, grinning cheekily.

"Oh, something's going to hurt alright," the Sand nin, hissed, pulling on the end of a bandage of his bundle. The thing that came out of it was not pleasant to look at. It was obviously a puppet and was the color of wood with brown hair with three eyes and lines all over its face. The clothing that it wore was a dirty grey and looked more like rags than anything else. "Kid, meet Karasu, you're worse nightmare and the last thing you'll ever see!"

Feeling the movement of the wind and seeing the way the puppet master moved his fingers, Naruto knew that it was time to vacate his present position. Once again, the blond channeled his chakra into his hands and feet and pushed off the ground with his hands to avoid the slippery arena's surface. However, this time, while he was in the air, the Pure One did several summersaults to distract the two Suna shinobi from seeing him pulling several kunai and shuriken from his weapons pouch. When he landed on the ceiling, the blond was quick in throwing the weapons down towards his two opponents.

The two did not even try to evade the attack, instead Kankuro moved Karasu in the way of the incoming projectiles. His body taking the hit of all of them, but doing no real damage. Nevertheless, they just walked into one of Naruto's traps, for within seconds the exploding tags on each kunai and shuriken went off simultaneously. The small explosions threw up a smokescreen and blew off some of the debris from the arena, but not enough to make the surface any less slippery than it already was. The explosions also seriously destroyed any weaponry the puppet had hidden within it and a good potion of its chest was blown off as well.

Temari and Kankuro were left unharmed save for being thrown off their feet. Karasu had acted, as a shield for the two and the only problem they were have was that their sense of sight was obstructed. That was easily remedied with Temari's fan though. With one swing, Temari had the battlefield once again cleared of any and all smoke. Even before the field was cleared, Kankuro had thrown a handful of his own shuriken at the ceiling where he knew the blond to be and the smoke was cleared out just in time for him to see Naruto dodge the attack.

Jumping to avoid the shuriken, Naruto moved towards the area of the ceiling above his teammates and brothers' head unconsciously. He was not given the chance to stay there long, for as soon as his chakra covered feet had him sticking to the ceiling barrages of weaponry almost hit him dead on. Dodging the weapons again, the blond stuck himself to the side of the gallery wall, but once again, barrages of weapons were thrown at him and he had to dodge. Every time he moved to evade one attack of weaponry, another was already aimed at him until wind attacks started to join the weapons and little explosions stared to go off all around him.

One explosion, instead of being sent at him, had been thrown at the area that was predicted to be the way he dodged and it was proven to be right. Naruto had moved right into the explosion, but it had gone off earlier than needed be and the Pure One had not been caught in the explosion itself, but the outer shockwave. It still work, throwing him off the wall and he landed rather painfully on the ground having been moving quickly from all his dodging and the energy behind the shockwave of the explosion.

"Kamaitachi no Jutsu!" Temari yelled out, swinging her fan and releasing her chakra.

Seeing the attack, Naruto knew that being caught up in that thing again would be a bad idea, but doing something about it was going to be hard. Making a quick hand sign, the Pure One pulled some of his demonic chakra into the technique. "Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

The arena was filled with Naruto clones, and the original was lost in the masses of them. The spectators were in awe that the small blond boy was able to create such a mass of the forbidden shadow clones, while the genin were all wondering how the supposedly dead last knew such a powerful technique. The Hyuuga twins were even very impressed, for even with their Byakugan, they could not tell the difference between the clones and the real Naruto.

Temari's winds cut through over a fourth of the shadow clones, all of them going out with a puff of smoke and popping noises. However, she had not managed to hit the real Naruto. Without giving it another thought, the blonde let loose another whirlwind and it was just in time too. Her attack stopped and destroyed the clones that had charged at her, but it did not destroy the clones that were attacking her from behind. Fighting them off the best she could, the sand kunoichi used wind attack after wind attack to get rid of the annoyances and when they got close enough she had to use her iron fan as a weapon to destroy them.

Kankuro and Karasu were in a similar situation. The puppet master was having a hard time keeping the clones from getting to him and was using his puppet to destroy them, but even Karasu could not be everywhere at once and some of the clones got passed the marionette. It was then that Kankuro either got rid of them by using his free hand that was not busy controlling his marionette to throw kunai or shuriken at the shadow clones or use a chakra enhanced kick or punch to destroy the annoying things. Nonetheless, seeing how he was running low on weapons, he had to use more of his chakra, which took away from the chakra he needed to control Karasu with. Something that caused even more of the bunshin to get by Karasu and made an even bigger problems for the puppet master.

Finally, Temari had enough. "_Daikamaitachi no Jutsu_!"

The greater wind attack cut down the rest of the clones around her and Kankuro with her carefulness as to control her winds from hurting the puppeteer and marionette. Naruto was not so lucky, after all his clones were destroyed and the wind mistress was able to attack him straight on. The blonde kunoichi sent the same attack at the blond again and when he tried to move, away to dodge he found he could not. Kankuro had wrapped him up and tied him down with chakra strings to keep him in place. A look of horror crossed his face before the wind surrounded him and tore his skin to shreds. A loud scream of pain wrenched itself out of the Pure One's mouth before he collapsed to the ground when the wind dissipated and was no longer there to hold him up.

"Aw, what sweet music to my ears! The cries of a defenseless, _helpless_, kid!' Kankuro cooed, walking over to the blond that was now struggling to get up onto his hands and knees.

He would not let that happen and brought his foot up before slamming it down on Naruto's spine. Another cry of pain wrenched itself out of Naruto's mouth as he was pushed back into the ground. The leg on his back did not remove itself though and instead grounded harder into his spine before twisting. Nonetheless, no more cries were heard from the blond and Kankuro thought he had passed out from the pain. Lifting his foot off the Konoha genin, the puppeteer was surprised to see that it was not the case as the blond tried to pick himself back up once again. Seeing this, Kankuro pulled his leg back and kick the smaller boy rather hard in the stomach, sending him rolling over towards Temari. The blonde stopped the boy's movement by simply lifting up her foot as if she was stopping a ball and not a human before giving him a kick of her own, but not strong enough to send him rolling anywhere.

Hearing coughing coming from the boy, Temari nudged the genin over onto his back to see a splotch of blood on the ground and blood trickling out of his mouth. Even with his body covered in gashes and cuts that bleed freely, the kunoichi knew that the blood had come from inside the blood because of the saliva mixed in with it. From the angle that Temari was looking at the boy, she could tell that he was rather young and that he was banged up pretty badly thanks to her and Kankuro. Something that caused a smile to cross her face, it was such a waste to have to kill him, but he was an obstacle in her path and must be eliminated. This was the perfect time. He most likely did not have any chakra left from creating such a massive amount of clones.

Those clones did do a number on her -and Kankuro as well- and had not been a waste of chakra. She had bruises and cuts all over because of those damn clones and some of them really hurt. There was even a little cut above her left eyebrow that was bleeding slightly and stung a bit because there was sand in it. But nothing like the blond had on him. Kankuro looked as she did, a little bruised and battered, but nothing that was going to keep him from fighting. The Konoha genin on the other hand looked like he needed to be put out of his misery now, in her opinion at least.

Raising her closed fan above the boy, Temari held onto it tightly before shoving it down, intending to shove it into the boy's stomach, but that did not happen. A second before the fan collided with the blond's stomach a shout came from the gallery and the boy's eyes snapped open in an instant and for that instant, Temari swore she saw the blond boy's eyes glow. She was not sure however, since the boy rolled out of the way of her attack and she could not get a good enough look at his eyes to tell if it was just a trick of the light or her imagination or if it was real.

* * *

"NARUTO! GET UP!" Sakura yelled loudly as she saw the blonde Suna kunoichi about to shove her fan into his gut. It was because of the pink haired girl's screaming and everyone's eyes looking intensively on the battle going on below that none saw the way Sasuke tightened his hold on Kyuubi slightly and his eye flickering back and forth between the sharingan. 

"Naruto, get up. Come on, get up," the pale boy encouraged the boy in a slight whispered that only Kyuubi seemed to hear. He was already loosening his hold on the kitsune, who was ready to jump in not being able to watch his master being beaten up so badly with him doing nothing, when Naruto's eyes snapped open and he rolled out of the way of the attack. His hold instantly tightened back on Kyuubi when a growling voice filled the room.

"Don't underestimate _me_!"

* * *

"Don't underestimate _me_!" Kankuro watched the blond boy growl out as he proceeded to pick himself up off the ground slowly and scoffed at him. This match was getting really old, really fast. Why could not the blond just stay down and have it be over with? He would not feel any pain anymore and him and Temari could get the real match going. The boy was just an annoying pest in his opinion. 

"Kid, do you really think you can beat us? Do you even know who we are?" the puppeteer sneered, trying to get this match over with as soon as possible and frightening the boy seemed like a good way of doing it. He knew just the way too. Hell, all the people he knew were frighten of him and his sister because they were the Kazekage's children. They all expected them to be powerful and both of them were in their own right, but if he exaggerated some, he probably could make the kid get scared and make mistakes. "We're the children of the most powerful leader in Wind Country, we're-"

"-the children of the Kazekage. Yea, yea, I already know that," Naruto finished for the puppeteer, knowing that he was trying to make his scared, but in reality it only caused him to become angry. "Why do you bring your family into this match when you and your family disgrace the true meaning of family and the people in them?"

"Shut up! You know nothing, _Nothing_, about our family," Temari growled, the blond boy had hit an unknown soar spot in her. She knew very well that her family was not the best, her mother having died and her father always being away for Kazekage duty. Her uncle was not much better, always being away with her father and even when her and Kankuro saw their father and uncle, they were not really a family. The kunoichi mentally cursed her brother for bring up their father; it was what started the conversation.

"I know more than you think I do," Naruto responded, looking passed Temari and up at Gaara. Seeing the redhead nod his head, giving him the approval he was looking for, the Pure One turned his eyes on the wind mistress. "Sabaku Temari, age sixteen, first born child of the Yondaime Kazekage and Sabaku Karura, the deceased sister of Yashamaru. You're trying to obtain the title of Mistress of the Wind in order to follow in your mother's footsteps. You have no respect for you father or your uncle, knowing that they have forsaken their duties as being a father and uncle.

"Sabaku Kankuro, age fifteen, second born of the Yondaime Kazekage and Sabaku Karura. A puppet master in training. You got your first puppet, Karasu, from your mother before she passed away and since then have been fascinated with marionettes. You despise little kids, thinking of all of them as bratty and you too have no respect for you father and uncle even though you pretend to in the presences of others," Naruto recited, recalling what Gaara had told him and what was written on Kabuto's nin-cards before he burned them. The surprise looks on the two's face were evident enough that he had hit each nail on the head with everything he said, but he was not done yet. Oh, no, he still had a lot more information on those two and their _family _that he really wanted to get off his chest.

"The third, and final, child of the Yondaime Kazekage and Sabaku Karura was the indirect cause of Sabaku Karura's death. Sabaku Karura died at childbirth, but not because of her child, but because the Yondaime Kazekage had the Ichibi no Tanuki sealed within his unborn child to form the ultimate weapon," a gasp went out through the crowed at the information that Naruto had just divulged. Whispers went started up and, unknown to all, Arashi's hands tightened onto the railing he had been casually holding onto. "Another reason why both of you hate your father, for he not only stole your mother away from you at a young age, but your younger brother as well. For the Yondaime Kazekage forbade you to treat your younger brother as anything other than a weapon of mass destruction. The punishment severe if not obeyed.

"But after awhile, both of you started to see him as a monster anyways and did not see him as a brother in any form. You treated him just as the villagers did. You did not see him as the _jinchūriki_ that he was, but as the _bijū _and murderer of your mother. You became no better than your father and uncle that you hated. You two lost your little brother the moment you considered him a monster and gave up your privileges to even call him your brother. He is no longer your brother, Sabaku Gaara-"

"Enough already! Just stop it!" Temari screamed the sudden flow of memories of her youngest brother that she had suppressed raging across her mind. "Gaara's been dead for almost a decade! So just, stop it already! There's nothing you can do for a dead person, they're dead for Kami-sama's sake!"

"-otherwise known as Uzumaki Gaara, is my Ani, now," Naruto finished, seriously startling many. Many turned to look at Gaara, standing with Haku on one side and Hinata hand off his arm on the other side of him, impassive as ever. Both Temari and Kankuro turned around to see the boy and they had no doubt about it that this truly was their long thought deceased brother. He looked just like the man that had the Ichibi no Tanuki sealed within him. It also explained why he used Sunagakure jutsu and had sand for a weapon. They remembered that he had an ultimate form of defense with that sand, which they seemed to have a will of their own that was concentrated on the protection of Gaara.

"Let me show you what he taught me," Naruto growled, the sand that was once used to Temari and Kankuro's advantage to make the arena slippery, started to move slightly at first. Then, ever so slowly, the sand started to come towards Naruto, as if a dog being called and going faithfully to its owner. They, the Sabaku siblings, soon found that the boy now had control of the sands around him like Gaara did. What they did not know was that while Gaara's sands did not needed any thought concentration from him to even move, Naruto's did, but his was still just as affective as Gaara's was as long as he was conscious.

"Uzumaki Tajutsu: Flowing Sand Style!"

* * *

Lee took in a gasp of air, while the sensei around them looked to be quite surprise. Across the room, a gasp from Gai could even be heard. Looking around at her sensei and then at Lee, Sakura wondered what all the fuss was about. It seemed that only she was at a lost, since Sasuke and Hinata were too busy watching the fight and Haku and Gaara seemed to be watching the fight as well, but they keep on looking over towards the Suna and Oto sensei as well. Whatever had her sensei, the rest of the sensei, and Lee in awe, she did not know, but she would find out. 

"What? What is it? Why do you all look so surprised?" the cherry blossom inquired.

Turning his head towards the girl, Lee gave her a gentle smile as he pondered a way to tell explain it. Giving a sigh, Lee looked back at the match, more specifically at Naruto. He watched as the blond just stood their perfectly still and tall like a tree, the only thing moving was his hair and the sands around him. His arms were at his sides and his feet were together, a picture of the perfect statue.

"In my studies to become a taijutsu only shinobi, I had to study every and all taijutsu I could find. However, I took my studying one step further by learning the basics of each taijutsu style I found," the young Green Beast started to explain to the cherry blossom kunoichi, who was listening intensively. "However, I came across two that even I could not do. The first, the Gentle Fist, and I only found that I could not to that move because I did not have the bloodline required for the taijutsu style. It was when I first found this taijutsu style, that I came to believe that it was the strongest style of taijutsu in Konoha, but I was mistaken. There was another style even more devastating than the Hyuuga clan's taijutsu and it did not even need a bloodline to be used. All it required was hard work and dedication.

"When I found that out, I thought I could finally beat Neji if I could just learn that taijutsu style. I immediately went to Gai-sensei to ask him if he could teach it to me, that's when I found out that, even if the taijutsu did not require a kekkei genkai to use it, I could never learn it. There was something special about the style that made it impossible to copy; the mighty sharingan cannot even copy the taijutsu style for some reason. One could only learn the style if it was taught to them by a member of their clan and even then it was difficult for an outsider to learn the clan's taijutsu style. It did not help that even though the line of clan that had the taijutsu style had continue to live on, the taijutsu style died out. The Uzumaki Taijutsu style was thought to be lost in time; it has not been seen since the time of the first of the Great Shinobi Wars.

"However, by that time the Uzumaki Taijutsu style intrigued me and I had to learn more about it. So I went searching in the oldest section in Konoha's library, what I found was even more interesting than I had first imagined. The Uzumaki Taijutsu style was not one style like I had previously thought, but five separate stills that catered to the shinobi that uses them, I just wasn't able to find out what those five styles were," Lee enlightened the pink haired girl with the most serious look that Sakura had seen on his face in all the short time she had known him.

"Five styles? That caters to a shinobi's need?" Sakura murmured to herself, even though she knew next to nothing about taijutsu, she did know that there were not many different styles out there. Nonetheless, having five different styles coming from on single clan was a big deal. It made the girl very curious. "I wonder what they are…"

"Striking Lightning, Flowing Sand, Running Water, Burning Fire, and Blowing Wind, the five styles of the Uzumaki Taijutsu," Haku told the group, the groups attention turning towards him, but his eyes were still on his brother's battle. Temari and Kankuro, after taking the shock that their youngest brother was still alive, seemed to realize that they were still in the middle of a match and started to attack the blond. No attacks even came close of hitting the Heir of Foxes, the sand defending him and blocking all the attacks. He himself had yet to move from his original position and continued to let them wear themselves out.

Even with his eyes on the battle, Haku enlightened the others on the basics of the five different styles of the Uzumaki Taijutsu. Lee being the most eager to hear. "Each style involves the users' mental and physical attribute to decide what style is best suited for them. It's because that the mental and physical attributes decide what Uzumaki Taijutsu style that they use that the Uzumaki Taijutsu caters to one's need. Our styles also depends on our chakra affinities to the elements, another reason why the styles cater to our needs. No Uzumaki in history has ever been able to learn all five styles, because no one has affinities to all the elements. The most styles anyone has ever been able to completely master has only been two.

"The first one, Striking Lightning, has to have an affinity for lightning and relies on people with great speed and quick minded. It uses jagged burst of speed to attack their opponents and is unpredictable where it will strike next, but it never strikes in the same place twice. It has a strong offensive and no defense. The second, Flowing Sand, the one Naruto is using right now, has to have an affinity for earth, and it helps to have a slight affinity for wind as well. The style relies on strength and endurance, the user also has to be calm at mind, being able to think clearly in the most dangerous situations. The style is like a rock, strong, but like sand that easily flows free if tried to be held. It has strong offensive and defensive attacks. It is also the style Gaara uses.

"The third, Running Water, the style I use, needs an affinity for water. To use this style one has to have grace and their mind needs to be an analytical one, ready to change at a moments notice. Flowing smooth movements are used for defensive mainly for this style, yet can be used for attacking too. Not really strong in offense, and adapts to changes like running water does, giving high defenses. The fourth, Burning Fire, needs fire as one's affinity. Usually the people that are have this Burning Fire for their style are quick to temper, but are very smart as well. They are strong and are forever evolving and changing to something new. Offensive and defensive attacks that change from one to the other with a quick flicker. Relies mainly on flexibility, speed, and a little bit of grace as well as strength.

"The final style, Blowing Wind, which needs an affinity to wind, is a little different than the rest of them. It is constantly changing and never the same, always different in movements, very unpredictable, and an unstoppable force. Like wind, the Blowing Wind style can be fast and swift but slow and soothing. It can be strong one second and weak the next. It is flexible and smooth while graceful and fluent all at the same time. But, like everything, each of the styles has its own weakness. Striking Lightning is weak against Burning Fire, Burning Fire is weak against Running Water, Running Water is weak against Flowing Sand, and Flowing Sand is weak against Striking Lightning."

"But what about Blowing Wind? You did not name its weakness," Kakashi pointed out, wanting to know more about the lasts style since in was different from the other four styles.

"It's hard to explain really," the ice boy answered truthfully, "but the best way I can describe it is that wind has many difference which are put together. Wind moves like lightning at times, but flows like the sand, parting to get in between objects in its way, and stays strong as a rock when wanting too. It is graceful as the running water and can easily help fire spread or blow it out. It can make running water change its course or speed it up. Wind can blow the storm clouds that make the lightning away or add to the storm's chaos. Wind can cause sandstorms or push an unmovable rock with its strength alone. Wind is many different things, but always different from the last gust that came before it, may it be weaker or stronger, no one will ever know. Get it?"

"I think," the scarecrow answered, a little unsure if he really did get it or not.

"So, you're trying to say that Blowing Wind is the strongest of the five Uzumaki Taijutsu?" Rin asked, after getting the whole explanation.

"No, the strongest style is the sixth, unofficial, style of the Uzumaki Taijutsu," Gaara finally spoke up. "It's call the Storm of Chaos, because, when it's use, it uses all the five original styles of the Uzumaki Taijutsu and it causes chaos. The only time this style has ever been used was during a war before the creation of Konoha itself. Five Uzumakis, in order to save the rest of the clan, came together, each with a different style of the Uzumaki Taijutsu and they somehow combined them together. What they created was a storm that not only saved their clan, but stopped the war that was going on, all in exchanged for the five Uzumakis' lives."

A heavy atmosphere settled around the area, after hearing the tragic past of the Uzumaki clan. It was an uncomfortable silence, one of which that was only interrupted by the sounds of the battle going on below. The Sand siblings still trying to get to Naruto, yet they still were not able to even get a simple shuriken by the sands. It was because of the silence that had Obito unconsciously flinching every now and again. He did not like the uncomfortable silence they had fallen into and he tried to change it.

"So, Naruto has an earth affinity, huh?" Obito asked with fake cheer. "I would never have guest."

"No," Gaara denied emotionlessly.

"Huh?" was the only sound that the confused older Uchiha could make.

Giggling, Hinata decided to elaborate for her boyfriend that did not seem to have any social skills in front of people other than herself and his family. Adopted family that is. "Naru-chan doesn't have an earth affinity, only Gaara-kun does out of all the Uzumakis alive, but he also has a wind affinity. Haku-kun has both a water and wind affinity and Naru-chan, he only has a wind affinity."

"But-but… he said… Flowing Sand… earth affinity… can't use without affinity…I'm-I'm," Obito rambled on, trying to make sense of what was going on. "I'm So _Confused_!" the Uchiha bemoaned.

"Let's just say, Naru-chan is special," Haku said softly with a smile on his face. "As of yet, he has not been able to master any one of the Uzumaki Taijutsu styles completely, but he is able to use all five of the Uzumaki Taijutsu styles."

* * *

"Now, it's my turn," Naruto spoke, moving for the first time since he had started the Flowing Sand style of the Uzumaki Taujutsu. Going through a set of hand seals, Naruto touched his glowing finger to his wrists and ankles before the gravity seals deactivated for the first time since the Chunnin Exams started. 

Making a fist, the blond dropped to his knees and hit the ground with sand infused chakra covered hand. The sand protected his hand from the tiled ground, but it also caused more damage to the tiles. A crater the size of himself now rest before the grinning blond and looks of horror crossed the Sabaku siblings. Then, within the blink of an eye, Naruto was no longer in front of the hole he had just created, but kneeling on the ground behind the two. With a swipe of his leg, the Heir of Foxes hit the back of both of the Suna nins' knees, sending the toppling to the ground.

Temari was able to catch herself from falling to the ground by doing a back flip, but Kankuro was not so luck. The puppeteer fell forward, right into a sand covered fist flying towards his abdomen. The strength behind the punch combined with his fall caused the wind to be knocked out of him and his consciousness leave him. However, unlike other opponents that would have just let the Suna shinobi fall to the ground after losing, Naruto slowed the boy's fall and placed him on the ground.

Looking up, Naruto's eyes meet with those of Temari's. "One down, one to go."

Seeing the intensity in the blond boy's eyes, Temari knew that she would not stand a chance against him in taijutsu only. Grabbing her fan, the blonde girl fully opened it to reveal all three stars and tried to call up the first attack that came to her mind. The keyword there being tried, for she was not able to call up any attacks. Not one at all and the Konoha genin seemed to sense her horror or she might have betrayed her emotions and let it show on her face. Whatever the reason, the blond started to chuckle slightly, which caused her to try even harder to perform a jutsu as he walked towards her.

"I wouldn't even bother trying, Temari, you don't have enough chakra to complete any type of jutsu," Naruto spoke calmly, still walking towards the girl. "That's how the Flowing Sand style words. One let's their opponent wear themselves out by attack and using up all their artillery while they either use sands to protect themselves or take the attacks themselves, hence why one needs have had a high endurance for this taijutsu style. Once their opponent has worn themselves out, that is when one attacks. This style does not require speed, for when an opponent is worn out it is more than likely, they will not be getting far, but I still use speed. It mainly requires strength to kill someone fast and with ease, or beat him or her into unconsciousness.

"Now, Temari, I think it's time we finished this match," the Pure One said off handed, right before he disappeared from her eyesight.

Temari's eyes widen when she could to find her opponent in front of her and she quickly turned around thinking he might have been coming from behind again. However, he was not behind her. The blonde's next instinct was to look upward and there boy genin was standing right above her head. His sands nowhere near him, yet feeling a grip around her feet, Temari knew where they were. Looking down again, Temari saw that his sands were now surrounding her feet and slowing creeping their way up her legs. Trying to dislodge herself from the sands, the blonde haired girl found she could not move at all and the sand started to move faster, now covering her waist.

A sudden breeze before her made Temari look up just in time to see Naruto standing before her, his right fist covered in sands. With a look that the kunoichi could not decipher, the Heir of Foxes punched the Sand nin in the stomach hard enough to knock her unconscious but still softly enough to do no real damage. Once the girl fell limply in the sands holding her, the Pure One guided the sands to set her down gently on the ground before releasing the chakra he had but into them. It was by then the match started to catch up to Naruto, the first signs were the slight buzzing noises in his ears the way the edges of his eyes were blurry and black.

He knew the signs of chakra exhaustion because his obaa-chan had made sure to teach each of his brothers and him a little bit about the human body and its limits. He just did not think he used that much chakra in his fight, he knew he used a lot of his human chakra and a tad bit of his demonic chakra, but his pure chakra and angelic chakra had yet to be tapped into, so he did not quite know why he was feeling so dizzy. It could not have been from blood loss either, because he knew for a fact that he had not lost that much blood. Most of the cuts and gashes he received had already stopped bleeding, so that was not it either.

"The winner, Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto heard Hayate announce, while he himself looked at one of the cuts on his left arm.

It was then it became apparent why he was feeling slightly dizzy and like he was experiencing chakra exhaustion. "Poison."

The word was breathed out, but it was all Naruto could get out before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell forward.

* * *

"He won?" Sakura asked aloud, not believing her eyes, in disbelief. That was, until a giant smile covered her face and the girl gave out a shout of joy. "Naruto won! Sasuke, can you believe it? Naruto won!" 

"Hell yeah! Naruto sure should those Suna shinobi a thing or two!" Obito cheered for the blond, happy to see that he had won.

"I knew he could do it, didn't you Kakashi?" Rin asked, her teammate who had yet to say anything.

"No, but I guess that's why he is the number one ninja a surprising people," the scarecrow answered truthfully, with what Rin assumed to be a smile on his face.

Arashi just stood back a little ways, a small smile on his face as he watched the blond inspect his wounds. "Good job Naruto, good job," he congratulated the boy in a soft whisper, even though he knew the boy could not hear him, he still deserved to be congratulated after winning such a match. The happiness inside him seemed to recede however at the young Uchiha's next words.

"Something's not right with Naruto."

It was right after those words were spoken, when the said boy fell forwards in a dead faint. It did not take the Yondaime two seconds before he reached the boy's side, thinking it might have been the cursed seal that had come back. However, when he saw no flames of any color, Arashi relaxed a little knowing that it was not Orochimaru's doing. The next thing he looked for was to see if there was any serious damage done to his body that could have caused his mini replica to faint. There was not. All there was, were many different cuts and gashes that had already stopped bleeding, save for the one on his arm that the boy had been inspecting. It was then, when he saw a blackish purple tint to that blood he realized why the boy had fainted.

"Poisoned," he whispered to himself, "probably from one of the shurikens or kunai, kunai most likely judging by the cut. The thing must have been coated with poison."

"Hokage-sama?" a quiet voice called out from his side. Looking up, the Yondaime saw that a med-nin was standing next to him with a stretcher waiting to be used. Another two med-nins stood on either side of the stretcher awaiting their newest patient. Knowing that their newest patient was the boy that he was currently looking over, Arashi knew that he needed to get out of the way and let them do their jobs, but for some reason he just wanted to make sure that, Naruto was all right for himself first.

"He's been poisoned," Arashi stated, getting up off the ground and letting the other two med-nins pick the boy up and move him onto the stretcher. "Judging by the way the wound is still bleeding, I'd say that most of it has already bleed out, but just to be on the save side could I possible get you to given him the regular amount of antidote instead of a reduced amount?"

"Hai, I can do that Hokage-sama," the med-nin answered, before she followed the two other med-nins with the blond boy.

Once the arena was clear of all people, save for himself and Hayate, the Hokage motion for the last examiner to continue on. Coughing once, the man nodded his head, before looking up at the gallery, more specifically at the people that would be continuing on to the third part of the Chunnin Exams. Calling forth the contestants that had won their matches, Hayate waited for them to assemble together on the arena. When that was finally done, the sick man began his speech.

"Un…well then, as of this… moment, the preliminaries… to the third exam… are now complete," Hayate announced while coughing. "To those of you …who won your matches and… qualified for the final phase of the… Chunnin Exam, although one isn't here," Hayate said referring to Naruto, "congratulations. Um…Hokage-sama…they're all yours."

"Thank you Hayate-san," the Yondaime thanked the examiner as he began to explain it to the finally parts of the Chunnin Exams. "As mentioned earlier, you will conduct the final around battles in front of everyone, each of you represents the battle strength of your respective homelands, so we want you to exhibit and fully showcase your various talents. And thus, the finals will commences one month from now! We call this the requisite preparation period in order for the lords, ladies, and nobles to be summoned for the finals. It is also serves for preparation for you applicants

"As all of you have witnessed the strength of your future opponents, this break gives you time to analyze the intelligent you have gathered from your foes and better increase your chance of victory. Even though, up to this point, all the battles have been real battles, they were conducted on the premise that you were fighting an 'unknown enemy.' However, the finals are a different story, some of you probably ended up exposing everything you've got in front of your rivals and some of you may have gone up against comparatively strong opponents and found yourself badly injured. In order to make the finals fair and just, we give you this month. Each of you must embrace the opportunity to practice hard, learn some new tricks and of course get some rest, as well.

"I would like to let you all go now, but first there is one last thing we must do for the finals," Arashi stated calmly, waving his hand over towards Anko, who was walking up to them with a box in her hand.

"Listen up maggots!" Anko shouted, causing so of the applicants to freeze up unconsciously. "There are slips of paper inside the box I'm holding, each one of you will take one. I'll come around so line up, got it?"

The genin all nodded her head and made a line. When that was done, Anko started to come around and let them take one of the pieces of paper out of the box she head. It did not take long, but it seemed to take forever to Sasuke, who was still holding onto Kyuubi for Naruto. He wanted to get this done and over with so that he could go and see how the blond was doing, but it was going so slowly and he was fidgeting because he was so anxious. Finally, the Uchiha got the chance to get a slip of paper, him being the last one in line, and pulled it out.

"What does it say?" Kyuubi barked from the top of Sasuke's head, eager to know what was on the paper. The fox thought he heard the raven mumble something about curiosity killing an animal, but he choice to ignore it. _"What does it say?"_

"Ever hear of patience?" Sasuke grumbled as he unfolded the piece of paper to find only one thing on it.

"Well? What does it say?" the fox pestered him some more. 

"It doesn't say anything," the genin answered back, holding the paper a little ways in front of him so the kitsune could look down and see the paper himself. "It just has the number six on it."

"Well that's no fun," the kitsune complained, he did not see any point giving out paper with only numbers on it. He thought they would be some kind of mission or something fun like that. They were not and now they did not hold any interest for him. 

"Starting form the left, each of you read out your number now!" the Hokage ordered, looking at Sasuke since he was the farthest to the left.

"Six," was the simple monotone reply from the Uchiha. After that, Hinata stated bluntly without a care in the world that she had three. Then it was the Sand nin's, Yoroi if Sasuke remember his name right, turn, he had one. The lazy genius Shikamaru had four, the bug-boy Shino had two, and the mini Green Beast had nine. Naruto's brothers had the seven and eight, which left Naruto as being number five.

"Good," Anko said, looking over Ibiki's shoulder as he wrote down on the pad of paper he had, before announcing gleefully, "and now I will reveal the match order for the final part of the Chunnin Exams tournament-style! Match one, Akado Yoroi vs. Aburame Shino. Match two, Hyuuga Hinata vs. Nara Shikamaru. Match three, winner of match two vs. Uzumaki Naruto. Match four, Uchiha Sasuke vs. Uzumaki Gaara. Match five, Uzumaki Haku vs. Rock Lee."

"Oh, this is going to be good!" Kyuubi yipped from the top of Sasuke's head, and oddly enough, it sounded like a snickering. _"You have to face both of Naruto's brothers, if you even manage to beat Gaara that is, in the tournament. They'll both be out for your blood too!"_

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked the fox, paling slightly thinking of the two Uzumakis -or would it be one Uzumaki and a Sabaku? No, Gaara was probably adopted into the Uzumaki clan since he was able to use the Uzumaki Taijutsu style from what he gathered- and what they could do. Sand and ice. Ice and sand. To be frozen to death or crushed to death. Neither choice was appealing to him. "What did I do to them for them to be out for my blood?"

Kyuubi, even though Sasuke could not see him, gave a smirk that only a fox could and snickered. _"You have a crush on their little brother, remember? And they don't like people hurting their little brother."_

"But I haven't hurt Naruto in anyway… And how do they know I have a crush on Naruto? I have not told anyone, save for my cousin, nor have I outwardly expressed my feelings for him. So how could they possibly know?" the Uchiha asked, a little surprised, and scared, that the two brothers knew he like their little brother.

"They have their ways, they have their ways," Kyuubi answered cryptically. 

"You're dismissed until one month from now!" Arashi's voice called out, breaking the Uchiha's conversation with the fox. Apparently, while he was talking with the little kitsune, his sensei was answering questions and explaining more about the Chunnin Exams, but he was not paying attention. Sasuke was a little more worried about his physical health in the up coming month. He really needed to train if he did not want to be crushed to death by sands or frozen to death by ice. He also had to figure out the strange new level of sharingan that he had somehow obtained in the Forest of Death and the attack he had developed on the spur of the moment in his fight. Both of them he still had to understand their capabilities before he was more comfortable using them.

But first and foremost, he was going to go see how Naruto was doing.

* * *

No flaming the author, I'm very dry and might catch on fire.

**_Shi no Tenshi 902_**


	24. The Destroyer Attack

This was supposed to be up yesterday, but I had computer troubles, so it is up today.

Also, someone asked me if Naruto was dating Hinatat, which is a **_NO. _**This is a SasuNaru story, not a NaruHina story. Hinata and Gaara are dating. Oh, and thanks to everyone that told me that chapter 3 and 4 somehow got to be the same chapter, I fixed it. And SasuNaru fluff in this chapter, finally, Yea!

* * *

"Tell me again why I am doing this," Sasuke mumbled as he walked down the streets of Konoha flooded with fan girls. Carried within his arms were a few brown bags of goodies and other such things, or at least that was what Obito had told him was inside of them. The young Uchiha had also changed into his older clothes, his blue turtle neck shirt with the Uchiha emblem on the back and white shorts, which was why he was currently being not so stealthily followed by fangirls, since they recognized him. He did not even have to turn around and see them to know they were there and he could hear all of them practically gushing over the little red fox kittling riding on top of his head.

"Because _Naruto-chan _asked us to," Obito answered, emphasizing Naruto's name and grinning brightly, which made Sasuke growl slightly.

"That, and Gaara and Haku looked like they were about to kill you and you wanted to save your hide,"

Kyuubi commented as well, purring softly.

Sasuke had to suppress a violent shiver that went through his body, the memory still fresh in his mind. It was only an hour after the Chunnin Exams' preliminary rounds ended after all. He had already gone to visit the blond boy in the Medical Wing, the boy's brothers following him and would not leave him alone with the blond. They also we glaring hard at him while he was talking to Naruto in the Medical Wing, apparently Kyuubi had been correct when he said that the brothers were out for his blood. It was only thanks to Obito and the blond himself that he had been able to get out alive and unharmed.

Evidently, Naruto had the great idea that they should have a small party in celebration that they had come out of the first two parts of the Chunnin Exams and had survived the preliminaries for the third part. Obito, thinking that it was a great idea, volunteered that Sasuke and him go get the food, while the blond finished up his stay in the Medical Wing. Thankfully, it was not going to be long stay, having a world famous med-nin as a grandmother sure had its benefits. For, while the two Uchihas were still there, Tsunade and Shizune came storming through the Medical Wing, scaring a few of the med-nins on duty, and demanding to know what had happened. It was at that time, while Haku and Gaara's attention was diverted elsewhere that the Uchihas snuck out without being noticed.

However, before he could get that far, Kyuubi came racing after him and Obito with a little list of things they needed for the party. Obito happily took the list and patted the fox on the head in thanks, thinking he would go back to Naruto right away since the two seemed inseparable. Nevertheless, the little fox did not leave and instead, he jumped up onto Sasuke's shoulder before jumping up onto his head. Making himself comfortable, Kyuubi laid down and purred gently. The kitsune's actions caused a surprised look to cross the younger Uchiha's face while the older Uchiha was laughing hysterically. Something that caused Sasuke's surprise turn into a glare directed at his cousin and Kyuubi's purrs to become louder, being pleased with himself for causing the boy embarrassment.

After they had finished gather the items on the list, the two Uchiha and the Kyuubi no Kitsune were walking towards Uzumaki house. A place Sasuke had never been, so when they left the village's gate and headed into the forest, the boy was a quite taken back. He never knew where Naruto actually lived, but he had not thought that the blond and his brothers would live outside of Konohagakure's protective gates all on their own. But, as his mind pointed out, they were not on their own anymore, their grandmother, aunt, and uncle were living with them now and even without them there, they could take care of themselves until the ANBU patrolling the gates of Konoha got there.

When they finally arrived at the clearing in which the Uzumaki house resided in, Sasuke was a little appalled at how small the house was. The placed did not look big enough to house three growing children, let alone three adults on top of that. The place did not even look like it had any electricity or anything like that. But when Sasuke walked in to the clearing, he felt something that he did not feel at his house anymore. It felt cozy and well loved, nothing like his house. Even though Obito tried his hardest to make the compound and their house feel like a home, it just did not seem right. The place still seemed dead and like a ghost town at times, but never like a home as it was here.

Even if the place was small, it was beautiful, for a lack of a better word. The Uzumakis had even started to set up for their party, making it look even more inviting. Streamers hung from tree branches and the top of the house. Unlit lanterns were strung above the clearing and zigzagged around by wires connected to different trees. Two tables had been set up outside of the house and had green tablecloths spread over them. Around one table there were chairs to sit at and on the other was some food and drinks. Reasoning that the table with the little food on it was where they were supposed to put the food they brought, the two Uchihas set the bags they were carrying down and took the food out of them to arrange it on the table.

After they were finished setting the food they brought out, the two Uchihas turned just in time to see Tsunade coming out of the house with Shizune right behind him, both of them carrying some cooking supplies and dinnerware. Upon seeing them, the two smiled and greeted them cheerfully. The four of them started up a small conversation as the two women set the table up and the Uchihas helped when they could. While they help out, Sasuke learned that after they had left the Medical Wing, Tsunade had promptly healed Naruto before they too left, ignoring the other med-nins completely, and came back to set up for their celebration.

"You're an evil, evil man, you know that?" Kakashi's voice rang out through the clearing a little while later as a hearty laugh followed after him.

"Only to you little brother, only to you," Zabuza's voice said, the remnants of laughter still in his voice. It was then that the two brothers made their way into the clearing, both of them dripping wet and carrying dry firewood in their arms.

"Do I want to know?" Tsunade asked, raising an eyebrow at the two wet jounin. Thinking about it for a second and remembering that the nearest body of water to them was a good three miles away, the Slug Sannin shook her head and answered her own question. "No, never mind, I don't want to know. Just hope that you two did _not_ get the wood so wet that it won't light or you'll be regretting it."

"Sure thing Tsun-chan," Zabuza replied, setting the fire wood next to a fire pit, his brother following his example. However, his attention was soon directed towards the older Uchiha that was standing next to the food table at the moment, helping with the meat they were going to be cooking for the party. It was also at that moment that Tsunade and Shizune had happened to go inside to get more supplies and Kakashi and Sasuke were roped into helping them, leaving the Demon and the older Uchiha outside alone "Hey, Obito! Want to help me start my fire?"

"_What!_" Obito almost shouted, shocked at the sexual meaning behind his words. A blush formed on his cheeks and he had to try to keep himself form stuttering like a fool. He was also hoping that he had missed heard what the man was saying.

"I asked you if you wanted to help me start the fire. So we can cook the meat," the Demon replied innocently, yet, unknown to the still blushing Uchiha, a devilish smile hidden under the bandages he wore on his face. He looked the reaction he got out of the smaller man and he could not help but like the way the Uchiha reacted to him and his comments. He looked cute.

"Yea, sure, whatever," Obito said, his blush going away slightly so that it was not as noticeable as before.

Walking over to the Demon, the two started to arrange the firewood within the fire pit which Obito was to use a Katon jutsu to start the thing. While they worked together, the others came out of the house with the last of the things they would need. It was also at that time that Rin, Iruka, Hinata, and Gaara came walking into the clearing. It did not even take an instant for Kakashi to be at the dolphin's side and was hugging him closely to his chest while the dolphin was blushing madly. It also did not take long for Gaara to turn glaring eyes on Sasuke.

Thankfully, Hinata was there and drew the demon container's attention elsewhere. Meaning, she gave him another kiss and then walked away leaving him stunned while she and Rin went to talk to Shizune and Tsunade. The Hyuuga Heiress may have known most of their secrets, because Gaara did not want to keep anything from her -she was his Soul Mate after all, Shukaku had told him so- but she never got to properly meet his grandmother. It did not take Gaara long to act like a little lost puppy and followed after Hyuuga Heiress, not giving Sasuke another thought.

Only a few minutes later Haku came into the clearing as well, leading Lee and Sakura into the clearing with them and a few feet behind them was Arashi dragging a bruised and beaten Jiraiya by the back of his collar. In both Lee and Sakura's arms there were two cakes that had little chibi shinobi on them that oddly resembled all the shinobi of Konoha that took part in the Chunnin Exams, teachers and examiners included. All of them were grinning brightly and looked very happy, save for Jiraiya who looked to be unconscious.

"Hey guys, hope we aren't late," Arashi said grinning, throwing Jiraiya not so gently against the house.

"Nope, not at all, Naru-chan still isn't here either," Shizune answered, smiling at them happily.

"He isn't?" Haku asked surprised, wondering where his little brother was since this was his idea after all and he would not miss it for the world. "I wonder where he is."

No sooner had the words left the brunet's mouth than Kyuubi had yelped happily before jumping off of Sasuke's head, finally, and running to the other end of the clearing. He was not even all the way over to the other side of the clearing when Naruto, surrounded by four fully ground white foxes came trotting out. The blond was not in his fighting clothing, but a pair of black shorts and an overly large orange shirt. His hitai-ate was hanging loosely around his neck and the first Hokage's necklace shown just underneath that. Kyuubi, before he could even get to the blond, had been pounced on by two of the white foxes and they started to smother the little fox in affection.

"Sorry I'm late, but I decided to invite a few more people," Naruto greeted everyone as he motioned behind him.

Looking behind the Pure One, the others saw that following him were the three chief examiners Ibiki, Anko, and Hayate, all of them analyzing the area around them. Behind those three there were four others, the retired Sandaime Hokage, his grandson, and his grandson's two friends. All of which seemed quite impressed with who was all there and it did not take them long to get more acquainted with the other there or, if they already knew them, start up a conversation with some of the others. Anko, spotting the former Demon of the Mist, got a sadistic grin and walked over towards him and Obito, wanting to discuss a few things with him. Ibiki followed after the woman, also wanting to talk with the Demon and join the Snake Mistress in her discussion with him and Hayate, spotting the world famous med-nin, went over to talk with her about his health. The third went over towards Arashi and the little ones stayed close to Naruto, not knowing anyone there really.

It had not been long sinc, everyone that they had invited, had come and the party had begun. Everyone was having fun and enjoying themselves; even the foxes were having fun playing with each other and the Academy students and together caused the others to laugh as they watched them. They still had yet to eat, but that was because they had put Kakashi and Zabuza on cooking duty together and they were more interested in bickering with one another than to actually cook the food, which was left to Obito and Iruka. Both of which were shaking their heads negatively, they could not understand how the Hatake brothers had become highly trained and feared ninjas when they were acting like four year old children. Anko and Ibiki had started to have a discussion with one another when Zabuza's attention had been taken away from their discussion about the Village Hidden in the Mist and their way of torture by his brother.

Both Rin and Shizune were trying to cheer up a depressed Hayate that had just told them that fiancée broke up their engagement just a few days back while Tsunade was inside the house looking for a scroll that she knew could help Hayate with his illness. However, judging by the screech that had just come out of the house before a rather loud banging noise and the absent of Jiraiya from the side of the house, the Slug Sannin was not looking for that scroll anymore and was dealing with a certain Toad Sannin. Lee and Sakura sat on one side of the table talking with Haku and Naruto about the Uzumaki Taijutsu style much to Lee's joy while two Hokages stood next to the two brother listening to what they were saying and asking questions when they could. As for the last Uzumaki, Gaara was sitting on the other side of the table with Hinata making-out much to the voyeur tanuki's, which rested inside of redhead, pleasure and enjoyment.

It was just a little after this that the first uninvited guest made their appearance. Neji, who had found them by using his Byakugan, walked quietly into the clearing and surveyed all that was going on. He did not make a move to make his presence known; he just watched what was going on and waited for someone to notice him. He did not have to stand there long before Haku noticed him and called him out.

"Is there something you would like Neji-san?" Haku asked, his happiness from all that was going on showed in his voice. Upon hearing the other Hyuuga's name, Hinata and Gaara's make-out session had come to an end and the girl was looking at her cousin, wondering why he was there. Naruto and the others that had been in the conversation with Haku had were also wondering why he was there and were all looking at him as well. Everyone else was unaffected by his appearance and were all in their own little worlds.

"Hai," the proud boy said softly, not seemingly to look at anyone and just glazing forward. "I would like to apologize for the way I acted towards Hinata-same during our fight. I was wrong and feel ashamed for what I have done. Could you find it in your humblest to forgive me at all Hinata-sama?"

Smiling at hearing the other her cousin's words, Hinata smiled and nodded her head. "I'll forgive you, Neji-niisan, if you do something for me." The branch member of the Hyuuga looked up at the girl, wondering what she could possibly want from him that she could not get on her own, but nodded his head anyways. "Live your life to the fullest Neji-niisan and don't let fate or destiny pull you done. If you do that, in return, I'll do whatever I can to abolish the Hyuuga clan's law and make sure no more branch members or anyone will ever have the Caged Bird Seal place upon them again and all that wear it will have it removed. I promise you, not at the Hyuuga Heiress, but a kunoichi of Konohagakure, that I'll do all I can, for I never go back on my word that is my ninja way, that is my nindo."

Surprised that the girl understood him so well, Neji had to stare at the girl in awe. It was at that moment that he saw Hinata in a new light, one where she seemed so different from the past and what he had been faced with at the Chunnin Exams. The girl in front of him was not a follower, she was not someone to be messed around with, she was not what she appeared to be. She was a leader, she was strong not physically but her will was unbreakable, she was not one to be swayed by other and made her own decisions instead of following traditions and regulations. Hinata was the perfect embodiment of what the branch members of the Hyuuga clan had been hoping for in a leader that they would be willing to follow without any hesitation. She was what the Hyuuga clan needed.

"As you wish," Neji replied with a small true smile on his face as he looked at Hinata. Seeing her smile back made the Hyuuga feel happy and relieved and after he was sure he had made everything right with his cousin, he turned his attention to Haku. He needed to made amends with him as well. However, before he was even giving the chance, the ice boy waved him off, knowing what he was going to say.

"Don't worry about it, we all make mistakes in our life and I know you're sorry for it," Haku stated in an uncaring way. Yet, only a few seconds later a mischievous grin crossed his face that did not go unnoticed by his brothers. "_But, _if you want to make it up to me than you'll stay and dance with me."

Blinking confusedly a few times, Neji looked at ice boy strangely. "But there's no music," he pointed out. However, as if those were the magic words music started to play. Looking around for the source of the music, Rin and Shizune were standing by a portable radio whistling softly while looking up into the sky. Grabbing the other boy's hand, Haku dragged the stuttering Hyuuga out into a clear part unoccupied by anyone and started dancing with him much to the boy's horror. Soon after they were followed by Hinata and Gaara, Lee and Sakura, and then surprisingly enough Anko and Ibiki. Shizune had pulled out Hayate on their makeshift dance floor not wanting to be left out as well.

It might have been because of the laughter. It might have been because of the music. Or it might have been because of the smell of food. But whatever it was, something sure seemed to attract others to start showing up that the Uzumaki house and the party. It started off with just Tenten, who said she was in search of her missing teammates, coming alone and Naruto happily invited her to join in the festivities and then it was Gai in search of his team. After that they seemed to come in bunches, Kiba and Akamaru, following their noses, with Shino not far behind. Then it was Ino dragging Shikamaru with Chouji willingly following her because he smelled food. Kurenai and Asuma came looking for their teams and also joined in the party when they found where everyone was.

It was when Zabuza and Kakashi, finally, announced that the food was ready and they were all sitting eating and enjoying the party when the final two uninvited guest arrived. Naruto was the first to see them, sitting at the far end of the table facing the tress surround the house and suddenly stopped completely. Seeing the way he froze up, Haku, who was having a conversation with his brother at the time, followed his line of vision before he too froze. It was when Gaara also noticed them and did not freeze up like his brothers but he did not continue eating or talking to his girlfriend that the others started to realize that there were other people with them.

Slowly the area became quiet, all eyes turning towards the two new arrivals, wondering what they wanted and why they were there. Even the five foxes that were doing little tricks or other things begging for food became still and quiet. It was only when the staring and the uncommon quietness of the forest, as well as the way the two other were shifting uneasily from all the staring that Gaara broke the silence.

"What are you two doing here?" the boy's voice was not its usual emotionless voice, but it was filled with anger. The others seemed to notice the change of his voice and flinched at the harshness behind it directed towards them.

Gulping, Temari knew that Kankuro would not say anything and had to start off. "We wanted to see you," the blonde haired Suna nin said weakly, trying her hardest not to stutter.

"You've saw me, now you can leave," the redhead said flatly, turning his head away from them and towards his true family that did not abandoned him because he had a demon sealed inside of him. "Now, _leave_, this is a _private_ party."

"That's not what I meant!" the blonde haired girl cried desperately. "I-we-," Temari corrected herself when she saw Kankuro glare at her, "wanted to… we wanted to… we wanted to say sorry for how we treated you. We were wrong, even if fath- the Kazekage forbad us from treating you like our brother, it was not right. You are our little brother. You did not choice for the Ichibi no Shukaku to be sealed within you. It wasn't your fault mother died and we could not see that at first. You don't know how much we -Kankuro and I- were crestfallen when we were told of your supposed death. It was then we truly realized what we had done to you and how much we regretted it."

"You don't know how much we wanted to change what we had done," Kankuro interjected, not letting his sister tell the whole tale by herself. "It was sad that it took us your supposed death to realize how much you truly meant to us and what we had done. We know that what we have done is not forgivable and we don't want forgiveness. We just want another chance. We just want to prove to you that we are sorry. Please, just give us this one chance. Please?"

Looking the two over, Gaara could tell that they were both sorry in all earnestly, but he could not give them another chance. It was not because of the way they had treated him or anything like that, but because they were Suna nins and he knew that Sunagakure was somehow connected with the snake that dared attack Naruto. He would not put his otouto in danger because he was giving people that had already proved that they were not trustworthy were asking him to. He just would not do it. Naruto and the others had become his family that cared about him through the start no matter what. His real family never did such things. So his answer was simple.

"No."

No matter if they were expecting that answer in the beginning, it was still a blow to the two Sabaku. Seeing the way he glared they were receiving, the two knew it was over and turned to leave. However, the blond boy they fought and lost to, one of Gaara's new siblings, stopped them.

"Where are your headbands?" Naruto asked innocently, stopping the two departing shinobi in their tracks. The two turned around and looked towards the boy to see if he was trying to mock them or was actually genuinely curious. Seeing the way he held no mocking features or anything like that, they decided to answer the boy truthfully.

"We are no longer apart of Sunagakure, the_ Kazekage_," Kankuro spit out the word like it was a vile poison that had managed to get into his mouth, "revoked our status as shinobi of Sunagakure, because we did not actually see eye to eye with him on a few things. One being the way he treated his own flesh and blood. I guess it shows you what kind of person he is, if he can't even treat his family kindly, he probably would treat others much worse. He also disowned us as his children."

Once Kankuro was finished speaking, the two looked around at the surprised faces of some of the shinobi there. They could not believe their own father had disowned them and revoked their status of being shinobi. It just did not seem right, yet they had to remember that this was coming form the guy that had a sand demon sealed within his own unborn child. A fact that still had many a little wary of Gaara, but the redhead had done nothing to them and they saw no real reason to fear the boy. They had even less reason to fear him when they saw how Hinata had him wrapped around her finger, something he denied greatly.

Looking over at Gaara with a message written in his eyes, Naruto silently talked to him as the two ex-sand shinobi started to walk away again. Sighing at losing the silent conversation, Gaara sent out his sand from his gourd and used it to form a wall before his leaving blood siblings. The two, startled by the sand, turned around when the found their path blocked and looked towards their little brother.

"Stay." The one word was simple and could have had more than one meaning, but the Sabaku siblings knew how to read underneath the underneath. He was giving them another chance and they were not going to take it for granted. Slowly, they made their way back over to the party goers and found a place to sit in between Shikamaru and Tenten. Nonetheless, even though they started eating again and Temari and Kankuro were given their own plates, the table was silent and uncomfortable. The atmosphere around them was tense and heavy.

It was times like these that Jiraiya's bad habits actually came in handy. "JIRAIYA! GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF ME!"

The whole group turned just in time in time to see Tsunade slap Jiraiya as hard as she could, which was really hard, and sent him flying into a tree. The others could practically see the birds flying around his head and the swirls in his eyes, causing everyone to laugh. The silence and uncomfortable atmosphere was broken and the party was back in full swing again. After all, who could not laugh at the sight of the Toad Sannin getting the beat to a bloody pulp by the Tsunade and then watching her go back to normal like it had never even happened? No one there apparently, since all of them were laughing hard.

After that, everything seemed to fall into place. The rest of the meal went over well and once that was cleared away and the cakes the Lee and Sakura brought were served. Arashi cut the cakes and then, within the blink of an eye, everyone had a piece in front of them and the Yondaime was grinning while twirling a three pronged kunai around his finger. Every just blink at that before smiling and laughing that he would use such a technique for everyday, mundane type of things. Nevertheless, he was not the only one that had done it, Obito and Sasuke used Katon jutsu to light the hanging lanterns when it became dark and lit up the clearing.

Everybody seemed to mingle with everyone else, even though they had fought with one another in the Chunnin Exams, or they would be fighting them, and no one held any hostilities towards anyone else. Plans were even made to train together and go out to have fun, one of these being Lee and Sakura and surprisingly enough Neji and Hinata, though Gaara was not too happy about having to share Hinata with the boy, even if it was her cousin. Thankfully, Haku resolved the issue by asking Neji to train with him instead, which the boy jumped at the offer, in a figure of speech. Kakashi had also cornered Sasuke while he was alone and made a schedule to train with him during the month break and not two seconds later the older Hatake brother did the same. During that time, the young Uchiha saw that the Yondaime was speaking with Naruto and figured that he would be teaching him in the course of the month off.

However, the scene got even more interesting when Jiraiya walked over to the two blonds and started talking to them as well. Apparently the old hermit did not realize that Tsunade and Shizune were not staining too far away from them and could hear every word that was being said between the three. It was then that the mega pervert was reacquainted with Tsunade's fist and was newly acquainted with Shizune's senbon. Well, it was safe to say that Jiraiya would not be sitting down for the rest of the evening and probably for the rest of the week.

It was only a little later that Sasuke found himself leaning against the side of the house watching all that was going on. Neji and Haku were currently having an in depth conversation about chakra points and pressure points and what one was more affective. Tenten was currently threatening Kankuro with bodily harm if he dared to lay one more hand on her, which resulted in the perverted boy to crush his lips against hers. Not far away from them, Jiraiya and Tsunade were having a drinking contest -Sasuke did not know where the sake had come from but he bet it was Tsunade- and Anko and Ibiki were acting as the judges.

Once again Lee and Sakura were dancing together, but there seemed to be even more people dancing with them than before. There was Chouji and Ino, something the surprised the Uchiha a little, Hayate and Shizune, Asuma and Kurenai, and Hinata and a very uncomfortable Gaara. Dei, Reimei, Yuuyami, Yabun -the foxes which Naruto told him their names- and Kyuubi were all prancing around the dancers' feet, as if they were dancing too and yelping happily. Nevertheless, there was one couple, that Sasuke did not know if they were actually a couple or if their actions were being influenced by Tsunade's sake, but he was slightly disturbing. He never wanted to see Gai and Rin making out ever again.

Sasuke found it very amusing that Kakashi and Zabuza had been tied together back to back and Iruka and Obito were currently standing over them, very threateningly. The younger Uchiha could not hear what his cousin or old sensei were saying completely, but he did hear something about '…idiots trying to sword fight in the middle of a party…' and something that sound very much like shoving their swords some place that would be physically impossible. Kiba was talking to Shino and Sasuke did not say they were having a conversation because Shino was not talking at all and the dog-boy was. Then there was Shikamaru sitting at the table playing a game of Go with Temari, while Arashi and Sarutobi were also playing a game of Go on the ground, talking with one another as they played, where they got the boards and stones, no one knew. Not far away from them, Konoha, Moegi, and Udon were curled up with one another, all sleeping peacefully having been worn out by the foxes.

Unknown to Sasuke, six other were also at the party. They were sitting up in the trees all of them watching the people below and smiling happily. They were having fun watching their Chosen Ones or descendants, knowing that things were going to get harder from than on out. Tsukiyomi, Amaterasu, and Susanoo all sat on one branch watching their descendant and smiled slightly, wishing they could do more for the boy, but they all had to laugh at the way Obito was blushing madly at something Zabuza had said. Both Inaris were watching their foxes play around and had to smile sadly at how close Naruto as to his father without him actually knowing it.

The final god, who sat on a branch all alone, smiled at the way his Chosen One was flirting with the older Uchiha boy. The god had no real look about him, being covered from head to toe in a black robe, but he was tall. Just as tall as the fox god and had an aura of forbiddingness. He was the God of Death, Shinigami, and he was the reason Zabuza had earned the title of Demon of the Mist. He knew, more than the rest, of the hardships yet to come for his Chosen One and the Pure One, he just hoped that all of them would get through it without him having to come and visit them.

Feeling a slight shift at his side, Sasuke looked over and smiled. Naruto, who had also fallen asleep, was leaning against him with his head on Sasuke's shoulder and cuddling up him. The blond boy looked so cute with his lips partially opened and the light from the lanterns gave him an angelic look. The raven never wanted this moment to end, he was with his crush and everything was going just right. There was nothing that was wrong and the Uchiha Heir could not help but feel happy for the first time in a long time. At moments like this, time seemed to stop and all there was that was going on was bliss.

Everything was perfect.

* * *

Everything was wrong.

Horribly, horribly wrong! It was not supposed to turn out this way. They were supposed to fight for the title of chunnin; they were supposed to fight with genin, _not _chunnin and above. This was not the Chunnin Exams anymore; the exams were the last thing that was on everyone's mind. Everyone was more concerned for the lives of themselves and the villagers. The Chunnin Exams finals should have not resulted in a war!

Oh, it all started normal. Everyone was gathering to watch the finals and all the applicants of Konoha that had already been beaten had come to cheer on their teammates and friends, even Temari and Kankuro -who had been living with the Uzumakis- had came to watch. All the nobility and people of higher status were all seated in comfortable seats and had the best view of the area down below. Extra security was placed around all for them for their own safety, seeing as Orochimaru was still at large and no chances were being taken. There was even two ANBU seated outside of the Hokage's own special box seats that him and the two Sannin were going to watch the fights in. Arashi had invited the Sandaime to watch with them, but he had refused, saying he was going to spend the day with his grandson.

The Kazekage had even came to watch the Chunnin Exams and Arashi, being the good host he was, invited him to sit with him, even though he had came to despises the guy from what he had learned. But, as Hokage, he could not let his emotions get the best of him and tell him exactly what he thought of him, he really did not want to deal with a war at the moment. So, instead, he just lead him into the box seating and prayed to what ever god was listening that Tsunade would not kill him on sight. Thankfully, she did not when Arashi showed the Kazekage to a seat right next to himself and as far away from the legionary med-nin as the little room would allow. It did not go unnoticed to the blond that the Kage of Suna seemed a little startled to see the two Sannin. He just thought it was because the other Kage was surprised that both of them were in the village for the first time in years.

After that, things seemed to go smoothly for the first round. Shino and the Suna nin, Yoroi, had a good fight, both showing that they were capable shinobi. Yet there could only be one winner and because Yoroi had the ability to steal others chakra he appeared to have the upper hand against Shino. Nonetheless, it turned out not to be true, for the bug user showed everyone what him and his bugs could do. His very hungry, chakra eating bugs. In the end, Yoroi looked like an unraveled mummy with the way he was drained of all his chakra and bodily fluids.

The next match had everyone on edge, but there was also something else. The few Sand shinobi that had accompanied their Kazekage to Konoha and were seated with the nobility were all jumpy. They seemed to be on the look out for something and their eyes were always shifting, never staying still for too long. It was only when the wind started to pick up that they were at ease once again, but they all seemed to have a smug smirk on their face. It was around the middle of Shikamaru and Hinata's match that the Suna shinobi had got over their fidgeting.

As for Shikamaru and Hinata's match, well it was like watching a game of Go. Some of their moves looked pointless to some until other moves came into play while other moves they could see the impacted right away. Everything they did was strategically thought out to the best of both of their possibility. In the end, Shikamaru was victorious for being the smarter of the two, but Hinata was the winner. The shadow user had caught the Hyuuga Heiress by her shadow, yet he did not have enough chakra to fully complete his next move and he forfeited the match.

It was then Naruto's match with Hinata, but, being the kind of person he was, Naruto asked Hayate and the other referee, Shiranui Genma, for a slight intermission for Hinata. The two, surprised that he would ask such a thing see as he would have had the upper hand if he had began the match right away, agreed not knowing what else to do. The intermission was not long, just a few minutes which Hinata used to take a solider pill and catch her breath. She then proceeded out onto the battlefield and that was when everything started to go wrong.

Hayate and Genma had started the match and it was then the feather started to fall along with the crowd. The crowds around them were falling asleep as well as some of the shinobi. Naruto himself could feel his eye start to sag, but a chilled wind that blew around him woke him right up. It also served to give him a message as well, another reason he had sprang wide awake. Without any further thoughts, the blond deactivated his gravity seals and dashed towards Hinata as fast as he could. The people that were still awake thought that the battle had begun and were watching with interest as Hinata took her modified Gentle Fist stance. They all watch as the blond boy was right in front of the Hyuuga Heiress and the people -that were still awake sitting- closest to him saw something that they did not expect to see on the boy's face. Fear.

Then it happened.

An explosion went off right where Hinata and Naruto were at. The loud noise plus the lack of sight of the two genin had the genin that were drowsy instantly awake while chunnin and jounin were on guard. Another explosion went off up in the galleries and yelling and screams tore through the air. The Sand nins started to attack. Their numbers were great, far more than what there should have been in the area at that time. They were everywhere, hidden among the nobility, the crowds, and a few were hidden behind masks of the ANBU. It was not only Sand ninjas either; there were countless Oto shinobi as well.

It was an invasion.

But one they were not unprepared for, ANBU immediately jumped into action, taking on the more powerful Suna and Oto shinobi, while jounin took most of the others. The Rookie Nine sensei, Gai, and Zabuza, being among the group of jounin. The chunnin had started to evacuate the galleries and get them to safety with most of the genin's help. The few genin that did stay behind were all fighting off the enemies in order to clear a pathway for the non-shinobi to get away safely. Among these genin were Lee, Neji, Shikamaru, Kiba, Shino, and Sasuke. Shockingly enough, Temari and Kankuro had also stayed behind and were fighting off what once were their fellow shinobi for the sake of Konoha.

Gaara and Haku were also there, using their sand and ice to blockade some of the shinobi and explosions from the battlefield in order to find out what had happened to their little brother and Hinata. They did not have to worry though, for a few meters away from where the first explosion occurred, an unharmed Hinata was helping up a coughing, clothes slightly singed, Naruto. The blond haired boy had got to the Hyuuga Heiress in time and moved both of them out of the way of the blast just before it could reach them. He, however, had inhaled some smoke into his lungs and they were deeply protesting to it, other than that, both ninjas were fine.

Arashi, on the other had, was not doing as well as his blond haired student was. It turns out that the Kazekage of Sunagakure had been dead for a while and Orochimaru had taken his place by posing as him. The snake also seemed to hold a grudge against him for the Sandaime picking him as the Yondaime Hokage and not himself. Something that was completely out of his hands. It was not his fault that the snake did not get picked and it was no wonder, look at what he had become. No one in their right mind would want to have him as their Kage. However, he was proven wrong on that aspect when the snake revealed to him that he was the Kage for the newly risen Otogakure village, the Otokage. Hey, no one can be right all the time.

Arashi still just wished that Orochimaru had not used his summoning jutsu to summon the dead Hokages. Tsunade was having a hard time fighting her own grandfather, the Shodai, and Jiraiya did not seem to be fairing well against the Nidaime. But there was not much he could do about it, since he had to face Orochimaru. They were at a disadvantage, the Slug Sannin could not find it in herself to fight the Shodai and was only dodging his attacks and Jiraiya was having problems with the Nidaime's Suiton attacks. Then, to make matters even worse, they could not leave the rooftop that they had been brought on, because of four of Orochimaru's henchmen had a barrier surrounding them. Arashi was sure he could bring it down, but the problem was that the snake was not giving him the chance to even get close to it, let alone try and bring it down.

Like all things, bad just had to go to worse.

When the Konoha shinobi finally thought that they were getting the upper hand and they were pushing the Sand and Sound nins back, they came. They were part of never ending nightmare that had begun. They were S-ranked missing nins.

The first was a missing nin from Sand and like Gaara he had red hair but his was slightly duller. His eyes were dull and lifeless, like that of a doll, but that was probably because he was a doll of sorts. He was a puppet. Or at least he made himself into a puppet, the only thing connecting him to being human was his heart, seeing as puppets could not use chakra and he needed the chakra to control his puppets. The puppet-man looked to be incredible young and had a childlike look to him, but he was nothing like a child. He was a cold blooded killer. He was Akasuna no Sasori.

The second missing nin was from Iwa. The nin looked like a girl and seemed to act that way as well, but he was not a girl. His dark blond hair was held up in a high ponytail and a part of his bangs covered his left eye. His uncovered eye was black and narrow, almost as if it was fixed in a permit glare. His other eye, that was covered, had a scope on it for long range battling. He was the one that had been setting off the explosions and he had enjoyed every minute of it. After all, this was Deidara's kind of art.

There were two other missing nins that unlike the first two were, they were already badly injured, from what, they Konoha shinobi did not know, but they did recognize the two of them. The first was said to have fought the Shodai Hokage himself and had fallen at his hands, only to vow to come back and defeat him. The second was what many had come to believe as an immortal, for even with his head chopped off, he could still survive. They were Kakuzu and Hidan.

All four of the missing nins were wearing black cloaks that covered their whole body with red clouds imprinted on it. None of them seemed to be in the least bit worried about having just arrived in the middle of a war and none of them cared when they started to attack if they were hitting Konoha nin, Oto nin, or Suna nin. They were on no one's side but their own. They did not care that they had a slight treaty of sorts with the Sound and promised to help with the invasion, they had already done there part of the treaty, the Otokage still needed to live up to his part.

Deidara had set the explosives like he had been told to and Sasori had taken care of the surveillance cameras while Hidan and Kakuzu got the hard part of the agreement. They had to take care of all guards guarding the entrance of Konoha so that the Sound and Sand nins that were laying in waiting could get into the village. Now, they were waiting on Orochimaru to finish his part of the treaty, the deliverance of an annoyance as Sasori referred to it, but that was not going to be happening anytime real soon. So they decided to enjoy themselves and cause a _little _bloodbath.

Sasori, seeing another puppeteer fighting, could not help but want to fight him and made his way over towards the boy puppeteer. He was soon stopped when he heard a splashing noise and looked down to see that he was standing in a puddle of water. Before he even knew what was going on, mirrors made out of ice began to raise out of the water all around him, all of them with the same image of the person -he could not tell if they were a boy or girl- that looked like a hunter nin with the mask, ready to fight him.

Seeing that he was not going to be fighting the other puppeteer first, Sasori gave a slight shrug before summoning his puppet to his side. Hiruko was instantly by his side and with his chakra strings already attacked to the puppet. He did not have time to get into Hiruko, but he thought he did not need to. Ice was easy enough to break and with a twitch of his fingers, Hiruko was sent at the mirror right in front of him, fully intending to destroy it and the shinobi inside. Yet, before his puppet could even get to the mirror, thousand upon thousands of senbon rained down on him from all sides. They did not hurt him, since he was a puppet, but they were able to sever his chakra strings, making his marionette fall to the ground motionless.

Staying emotionless on the outside -for he could not show any emotions to begin with- Sasori was seething inside as he had to reattach chakra strings to his puppet. He also took the time to summon another puppet; somewhat glade that no one could see inside of the ice doom around him, for the Suna nins would get very violent towards him upon seeing their Sandaime Kazekage as a puppet. The little shinobi would not be able to stand a chance against him with his two puppets, this Sasori was sure of. With a few movements of his fingers, the ex-Sand shinobi sent the two puppets at two different mirrors.

While Sasori was battling inside of Haku's ice doom, Deidara was battling up against Gaara. The man was having trouble with the young sand user, for all of his clay booms were being neutralized by his sands. Something that put Deidara at a disadvantage. He was so used to using his bombs for everything, that it was difficult to start fighting without them. Nonetheless, he was the one with the upper hand, but, by the way Gaara was fighting, it did not show. He just stood there, arms crossed keeping his eyes on the clay bird that Deidara was circling around him on and every time he tried to drop a bomb on the boy, his sands shielded him form the attack.

However, the clay bomber learned the hard way that if he stayed still for to long he would end up crushed by the sands. It was then that he started to use even more and more bombs in hopes of being able to catch Gaara off guard and have his exploding clay get through his ultimate defense. Something that did not turn out the way he had hoped for it too. Instead of protecting him from all the clay explosives, the sand sands surrounding the redhead and the gourd on his back -which turned to sand- started to manipulate themselves into a figure of their own. A tanuki, twice the size of Deidara himself, with glowing eerie yellow eyes staring at him.

The sand tanuki intercepted the bird bombs and crushed them with one of its claws and tail. The explosion doing nothing to damage the sand holding the tanuki together. Once he was sure his container was safe, Shukaku in his sand body turned his attention towards the flying bird and swiped his claws at the thing. Since he was not very tall in his sand body, his attack would have never reached the clay bomber if it was not for the fact that he could manipulate his sand body to stretch to impossible lengths. With a crushing grip, the Ichibi grabbed onto the flying bird and watched in amusement when it exploded in his grip, the rider long since abandoning the bird in hopes to survive.

Just a few feet away from where Deidara landed before continuing to fight the demon and his container, the two Hatake brothers were fighting the remaining two S-ranked missing nins. Kakashi using his saber to hack away at Kakuzu while Zabuza used his man cleaving sword to take on the indestructible Hidan. The two brothers had each other's back, literally, for they were standing back-to-back fighting off against the two nuke-nins. All the while, doing what they seemed to do best in each other's presence, arguing with one another. Something that really seemed to annoy the two missing nins to no end.

"I'm telling you that Sasuke would have so beat Gaara in their match if it had gone on," Kakashi growled out, thrusting his blade at the shinobi in front of him that had gotten to close. He seemed to graze the others right arm, drawing a little blood, but that was all, no real damage was done.

"And I'm telling you that the Uchiha would _so_ have his ass kicked by my nephew. I've trained with both of them, so I should know," Zabuza stated, swing his sword at Hidan as he tried to perform some weird kind of ritual. Thankfully, whatever he was trying to do was interrupted by him and he did not get the chance to finish.

"But you haven't seen what I've taught him," the scarecrow replied, smirking smugly under his mask, avoiding one of Kakuzu's attacks barely. He was kind of sad when the attack did not come even close into hit his brother, but that was life for him. Nothing ever went according to plan.

"And you haven't seen the full extent on what Gaara can do," the Demon countered, missing the attack from Kakuzu and Hidan while rolling his eyes at his brother's immature way of dealing with things.

"Would you two _shut up _and _fight_!" Kakuzu seethed having enough of the two's bickering.

"No," the Hatake brothers said simultaneously, grinning under their masks.

"But if it is a fight you want-" Kakashi said, taking on a look that could be described as Zabuza-ish.

"Than it is a fight you'll get," Zabuza finished "_Hakko Chakura-"_

"-_To_," the scarecrow ended. Their respective blades taking of a white hue and chakra began to burn through them. With a swing each, the two brothers continued to fight the nuke-nin, still bickering about who would have won the match between Gaara and Sasuke.

* * *

He was getting impatient. He only agreed to this treaty like deal because he was promised he would get the Pure One. Orochimaru had come to him with the information that he knew where the Pure One was and would deliver the Inaris' Chosen One to him if he helped the Snake Sannin in return. However, this agreement was proving very debatable at the moment. It had come to his attention, through some of his dispensable sources that the snake never even knew who the Pure One was. He, himself, had no clue who the Pure One was either, but that was not the point. Orochimaru had told him he would deliver the Pure One and as of yet, there was not a single sign of anything pure and important in this village.

Maybe it was time he made himself known to the fighting shinobi, cause a little raucous that might drag the Pure One out. Spotting a familiar figure, a dark flicker in his eyes showed any outwards sign of emotion for the rest of his face was controlled and unreadable. He had just found the perfect target.

Sliding out from the shadows that hid his being, he took long purposeful steps towards the figure that had yet to notice his presence as he fought against his enemy. His long jet black hair and dark purple cloak swaying around in the fickle wind form all wind jutsu that were being used. Snake like red eyes fixed upon the figure as it dodged a particularly deadly blow while an explosion went off at his side, never once did the eyes flatter or leave their target.

A slim pale hand reached down into his hidden shuriken holster and drew out a single silver shuriken with a purple tint. Holding it in his hands as the wind became still for the first time since the invasion had begun, the Destroy let one of his favorite toys fly through the still air.

* * *

He was fighting hard, trying to make sure that the last of the innocents got out of the stadium safely and letting no enemy shinobi follow after them. It was only when an urgent yelp from Kyuubi made him look up did Naruto realized his worst nightmare had come to life. He saw the silver weapon aimed at Sasuke and more than anything else fear gripped a hold of his heart. Blue eyes widen as he unconsciously made the wind around him come to a startling halt. Two names, one whisper and the other shouted, left his lips as he propelled himself into action.

"_The Destroyer_," the whispered caught in the still wind, before Naruto and the wind burst into movement. The wind carrying the silent message to the ears that heard the unheard, the chosen few of the gods and the Pure One's family, while the Pure One himself rushed as fast as he could to save his Soul Mate. **_"SASUKE!"_**

The raven haired boy turned just in time to see his attacker throw his deadly toy at him. He, if it were anyone else, would have dodged the attack right away given the warning he had, however, his body seemed to be against him. He froze up when his eyes caught sight of the person. His eye widening in slight fear and familiarity of the person. No longer did he pay attention to either his enemy or the on coming weapon aimed at his heart, instead they were trained on the unfamiliar eyes that no longer looked as they had at their last meeting.

Only one word was able to escape his lips when the weapon was all but upon him. "Itachi."

* * *

"_The Destroyer_."

Tsunade was in the middle of dodging her grandfather when the wind blew the softly spoken word of her adopted grandson into her ears. At the time, she was in the air and her features changed from concentration to worry and fear. The first thought that ran through her mind was that Naruto was in danger and she had to get to him. It was only a few seconds later when she landed on the rooftop and had to dodge another attack from the Shodai that another thought crossed her mind. Orochimaru, even though he was smart and strong on his own, could never plan and execute an invasion of this magnitude. He did not have the knowledge of summoning the dead to life once again either, but he somehow had done so.

It was then that the crashing realization that the Destroyer had not only helped with the invasion, but was apart of its planning that Tsunade let it sink in that she was not fighting her grandfather. She was fighting the body of her grandfather that Orochimaru, and indirectly the Destroyer, was using him as their pawn. This caused her eyes to narrow and a grim look pass through her face. Her attempts at dodging stopped and a determined look crossed her face. She would run from the pawn no more. She would fight the pawn and kill it so her grandfather would be free to rest in piece.

She would let neither her grandfather nor herself be controlled by anyone.

* * *

"_The Destroyer_."

The words were a cut and a stab to his being. The Destroyer was there and with Naruto, but he was not. He was not there protecting his brother like he should and it was all because of the clown in front of him. He was keeping him away from his little brother, keeping him from protecting him, and Haku did not take that to well. He would not be shown up by this clown of puppet master, he was mortal after all. Haku, on the other hand, had the blood of an ice goddess running through his veins and he was going to show the puppeteer why one did not mess with a descendant of any god or goddess, especially an ice goddess.

Sasori did not know what was going to hit him and Haku was going to show him why one never got in between an overprotective brother with the blood of ice running through his veins. For his blood did not boil like others when angered, no, it _froze_. Just like the temperature was decreasing rapidly around them, Haku was going to make sure that Sasori decreased rapidly into nothing. He was going to make it so cold that the wood his puppets and his body were made out of would freeze. Then he could shatter him into itty bitty pieces with just one blow.

* * *

"_The Destroyer_."

Gaara and Shukaku both became petrified at the words that floated across the breeze. They knew that those two words were going to change their lives forever. Those words were the most dreaded thing to hear, for they knew that when the Destroyer came, they had only two options really. Let him take Naruto without a fight and leave the village intact, something that definitely would not be happening -the war going on around them had helped decided that just a _little_- which only left the other option. Fight with all they had and pray for the best.

Growling, Gaara felt himself losing control of his and Shukaku's chakra and the sands reacting to his agitated state. The sands started to surround the redhead, the tanuki losing its sand body and retreating back towards him with all the other sand. Deidara, not understanding what was going on, took a step back when he saw that yellow chakra started to surround the demon vessel and lash out all around. However, he did not get too far, for his back can in contact with a solid object. Turning his head, the blond saw a wall of sand that was stopping his retreat. It was then he noticed that the sand was not just a wall behind him, but he was inside a sphere of sand.

Alone with the demon boy.

* * *

"_The Destroyer_."

"…No…" the word was lost in a breath as he jumped out of the way off his opponents three bladed scythe. The only thoughts running through Zabuza's head was that _he_ had finally found them. _He_ had finally caught them. The Destroyer was here. After years of being on the constant move to make sure that he did not find the Pure One, he had found them. But Naruto was not ready to take on the Destroyer; he was not strong enough to hold his own up against _him_. He could not win. He needed more time to train and come into his powers.

Naruto was not ready for this.

He was not ready for **_this!_** He had finally found happiness and a home here in Konohagakure. He had family, _blood family_, here in Konohagakure now. He had a love interest here and he did not think he could give it up, he knew that if the Destroyer was here and they somehow got him away from the village, they would have to move. They could not stay in Konoha now that _he_ knew that they were there. They would be endangering the lives of innocents and the ones that had spots in their hearts. Something that Naruto would never allow.

Feeling the rage that came from the knowledge, and the fact that Naruto was endangered, Zabuza felt something spark within him and he unconsciously started to summon up the power that the God of Death bestowed upon him. The white chakra surrounding his sword changing from white to grey to a pitch black color, reflecting his conflicting emotions and powers within. Raising his sword above his head, Zabuza wondered briefly if the so called immoral before him knew that there was no such thing. After all, even the true immortals die.

* * *

Sasuke felt himself being shoved to the side before falling to the ground with something weighing down on his chest. Opening his eyes which he had closed at the sudden pain in his chest, the youngest Uchiha watched as his enemy from before fell to the ground. The Oto nin was dead even before the fall, with a purple tinted silver shuriken embedded in his chest. The weight on his chest turned out to be Naruto, who was now lying on top of him with his eyes clenched tightly together and a pained looked look on his face. What startled him the most was that surround him and the blond, keeping everything out away from them and at a bay, white chakra whipped around them like flames.

It was then the unique blue eyes snapped open and Sasuke also drowned in the concern he saw inside them all directed towards him. A small smile made its way on the blond boy's face as the concerned disappear to be replaced by relief. He did not know what to do at the moment nor did he make any move to do anything, even if they were in the middle of a war with his murderous brother standing not far away from them. But he did not have to do anything, for Naruto did it for him.

Leaning forward, the blond blue-eyed boy gave him a short meaningful kiss on the lips before pulling back smiling at him. "I like you."

Those three little words seemed to make Sasuke's heart race a mile a minute and everything around them seemed to disappear. All the noise became distant humming noises as the young raven looked inside of Naruto's eyes. He was searching, for what, he did not know himself, but he found it in the form of sincerity. He also found sadness in the blond's eyes before they closed, cutting off the young Uchiha's search of the uniquely color eyes, but he did find one more thing. A small stray tear trailed down from Naruto's right eye and he did not understand why.

"…Pure One…"

Itachi's voice seemed to break the moment and then time not only seemed to restart around the them, but speed up as well.

The next thing Sasuke knew, was that he was rolling to the side and when he regained his bearings again, he was looking wide eyed at where Naruto and him were just moments ago. Now, all that remained, there was just a purplish-black substance that was eating away at the ground itself and creating a hole. Looking upwards towards where the substance had come from, the young Uchiha was greeted with the sight of a true demon. The monster had eight tails and eight heads, each with a pair of eyes as red as a winter-cherries. Its upper body was towering above the whole stadium showing off its bloody and inflamed belly, not the purple scales that covered the rest of its body. Yet it was not inside the stadium, but outside leaning in, all its heads glaring at one person.

Naruto.

The blond haired genin was just standing there, his right side facing Sasuke, unmoving. He seemed to be looking, _glaring_, up at the orochi where his older, murderous, brother was currently standing on one of its heads. On the blond's shoulder, where Kyuubi perched himself, the young fox glared up at the orochi and Itachi as well. He seemed to be growling, but the younger Uchiha could not be sure, for he could not hear the fox from where he laid. He did see the way the fox's fur was bristled and standing on end if that gave any impactions on what the kitsune was doing. Looking back at the orochi, a shiver went up Sasuke's spine.

There was no doubt about what the monster before him was.

The Hachibi no Orochi.

Without any orders or anything, all of the orochi's heads suddenly dove at their target. Sasuke tried to scream. He tried to warn the unmoving blond. But no words came out. He was paralyzed. The thoughts of how Itachi had taken everything away from him and how he was doing it again were running through his head, stopping him. He had promised himself he would do anything he could to protect the ones he had come to care about. His precious people. But at that moment, he just could not get his body too reacted. His mind was telling him to move, but his body was acting like it was tied down to the ground. He was going to lose another precious person.

It was then; Konohagakure got the shock of their lives and Sasuke's heartbeat momentarily stopped. A giant flame surrounded the blond, Naruto seemingly being the epicenter of the blazing flame, causing the orochi to pull back in order to not get itself and Itachi burned. However, the fire did not stop there. It expanded and grew bigger and bigger before a shape was formed. No one had the time to get a good look at the shaped -seeing as they were all fighting for their lives and the lives of others- before it was gone and something was jumping out of the flames.

The thing was as big, or bigger than, the orochi. Fur glistened and shined with a light of its own, showing off the blood red color of the fur coat of the magnificent creature. Golden eyes flickered with red for a few seconds, yet held on to their gold color at the end, which shown with intelligence and wisdom as well as power and strength. Sharp, pearly white canine teeth were bared in a viscous snarl and paws with razor-sharp claws ready to attack. There was nothing demonic about the fox, its ears were the normal size and shape for a fox of that size and it body was well nourished and healthy. The only way any of the citizens of Konoha recognized the kitsune was because of the nine tails thrashing about behind the fox.

The Kyuubi no Kitsune was back.

And riding on top of his head was one Uzumaki Naruto.

From what Sasuke could see was that the blond had a tight grip on the kitsune's fur as he kneeled down on him. Kyuubi -for Sasuke knew that the Kyuubi no Kitsune and Naruto's little pet kitsune Kyuubi were one in the same. How? He himself did not understand how he knew. He just did- had come out of the flame propelling himself through the air and right at the orochi. The kitsune was able to take Hachibi down because of the laws concerning inertia and gravity, but he was not able to make him stay down for long. The orochi was able to throw him off within seconds of being pinned and tried to bite Kyuubi with some of its heads. Nevertheless, Kyuubi was able to get out of the way of all the orochi's heads and jumping away.

The two tailed beasts continued to battle on that way, Hachibi trying to bite down on Kyuubi with one of its eight heads and missing because of the fox's agility and Kyuubi using his claw to scratch at Hachibi. Throughout the whole battle of tailed beasts, Naruto and Itachi, somehow, managed to stay on the beasts and were exchanging attacks of their own from the top. It was then that Sasuke noticed that they were slowly, but surely, leaving the confines of Konoha and entering the forest. Getting farther and farther away from him and everything else. It was then that Sasuke realized that Naruto and Kyuubi had made themselves bait and were drawing Itachi and Hachibi away from the village to prevent any other damage to come to Konohagakure.

This all happened within seconds. Yet Sasuke was able to comprehend most of everything and some what others could not. There was still so very much he did not understand, could _not_ understand. Why was Itachi there? Why did he want Naruto? For he indeed seem to want the blond boy. What was a Pure One? He did not question why Naruto seemed to be wary of his brother, as if he already knew him or knew about him. Nor did he question on Kyuubi being the most powerful bijū and the one that had attack Konohagakure so long ago.

But, Sasuke came to realize that by being bait, Naruto and Kyuubi were putting themselves in grave danger. It was after this realization that a forbidding feeling wormed its way into the young Uchiha's heart. The air around him and the rest of the Village Hidden in the Leafs seemed to become still and ghastly. The feeling of death surrounded the village.

* * *

And there you have it, the Destroyer is finally revealed and it's not Orochimaru like most of you thought. For those that knew all along, you guys take the fun out of making twists in the story.

Thank you all who reviewed and will review. I hope this chapter is good, it is longer than most. Elven pages.

_**Shi no Tenshi 902**_


	25. Aftermath

I'm sorry that my chapters are taking so long to come out, it is just the end of the year and all my teachers are playing cram-schooling style of teaching and it is very hard. And they have given me countless homework assignments that give me hardly no time to write. I have to warn everyone that this chapter sucks in spelling and grammer, far worse then my normal stuff, but I wanted to get it out, so yea... Enjoy.

* * *

He was floating. That was the only way he could describe it. His whole body was numb and frozen; it felt like he had no body to speak of at all. Everything around him was black and nothing could be differentiated. He could have been laying face down and thought he was looking upwards and he would never have known it. Everything surrounding him was the same, for there was nothing around him, just blackness. There was no light. There were no sides. There was no ground nor was there a sky. Everything was just blackness.

His mind was even blank, filled with blackness that surrounded him. He was having a hard time recalling what he had been doing before he woke up here. Hell, he even had a hard time recalling who he was. But for some odd reason, he did not seem to care at all. All his mind wanted to do since he woke up here was go back to sleep. He felt so tired and he could not figure out why. However, there was a reason why he did not just let himself fall asleep and succumb to the darkness of his mind that the sleep offered. A feeling inside of him was growing, warming up his cold body, making him want to remember, but he could not quite remember what the feeling was. It felt nice and warm, a feeling that he had not experienced in a long time.

Hope.

That was what the feeling was. Yet, what was he hoping for? He tried to recall what had caused him to feel this way, but it was hard. He was tired and just wanted to sleep, but every time he tried to, the hope would make him want to wake up. Finally, with a lot of determination and willpower, he started to try to remember what had happened. What was going on to cause the hope inside of him to become desperate. At first, it was hard, he could not make out anything, but then, very slowly, blurry images started to take shape.

The images were cloudy and hazy, at best. They were of a battle… no, not a battle… a tournament for the exams. The Chunnin Exams. He watched from higher up as a bug-boy took out his opponent with little to no difficulty. Then the images started to blur badly again, causing him to lose the image of what was happening. What looked to be like an explosion went off making him to try and concentrated harder than before, for at that moment his heart dropped and he felt like he was about to die, trying to make the image come back clearer.

With a lot of work, the image finally came back, but by then the explosion was already over and a war begun. He himself was fighting off what looked to be a sickly man that was saying something and he felt anger rise up inside of him. However, he did not understand why he was so angry to begin with. The person was saying something that he could just barely make out and with a little bit of strain on the ears on his part, he was able to catch some of what the sickly man was saying. Something about the Yondaime title that should have been his and not given to someone like himself.

Yondaime. That was him, wasn't it? Yes, it was. He was the Yondaime Hokage of Konohagakure, Kazama Arashi. That was who he was, but it still did not explain why he was here.

Trying to remember why he was here, Arashi had to really think about it. He remembered that he was fighting the sickly guy, Orochimaru his mind supplied, and he remembered that the man had raised the previous two dead Hokages back to life using a technique that was forbidden. He did not have to take care of the supposed to be dead Hokages, two others that he really trusted took care of them for him, he just could not remember who they were. He saw a picture in his head of a blonde haired woman with the biggest bust he had ever seen and a male with silver hair and face paint that was holding up an orange book while smiling gleefully.

Then Orochimaru, seeing that he was losing made a desperate attempt to either flee or kill him, but Arashi could not tell which. For at that moment in time, a blaze of fire lit up the area. The blazing fire grew and grew until it took a shape that made his heart drop into his stomach. It took the shape of the Kyuubi no Kitsune when it first attacked the village all those years ago. However, leaping from within the flames, a completely different fox came out. A kitsune that he was very familiar with, only in a smaller form and with eight less tails. It was Kyuubi. And on the fox's head crouched down while hanging on to the fox was Naruto.

It was then that the feeling of hope began to rise with in him and he did not understand why. Nonetheless, what he did not know, his subconscious did. His subconscious knew that the little red fox kittling Kyuubi and the Kyuubi no Kitsune were one in the same. It meant that the fox was able to survive the fire that everyone had thought destroyed the demon and if the fox was able to survive then there was a likely chance that his son had well. It gave him hope that his son was still alive and out there somewhere waiting for him. Yet, his conscious mind knew none of this and all he knew was that there was a longing and a hoping for something inside of him.

That still did not explain many things. Like where was here? How did he get here? What happened?

Drawing on his hard to reach memories once again, the Yondaime searched for what had happened right before he had succumbed to the darkness and had awoken here. It was then it hit him, harder than anything in his life since his son and wife were taken away from him. He had stopped Orochimaru from trying to take over his body with his mind transfer jutsu. However, the only way for him to do that was with a seal and for some reason, the only seal he could recall at that time was the Shiki Fūjin. Without thinking about it, he used the jutsu, only to be able to seal Orochimaru's arms away before one of the snake's followers got in the way and let the Snake Sannin escaped while the followers died saving his life. He did not even care that his subordinates were dead, the heartless bastard.

It now explained to him what was happening to him now and where he was.

For he, the Yondaime Hokage Kazama Arashi, was dead. He had used himself for the sacrifice in order to summon the God of Death. The reason he felt so numb and felt like he did not have a body was that he did not have one. All he was in this place was a lost soul waiting for Shinigami to find him and take him away. And it did not bother him in the least bit, for in his mind, he would be reunited with his wife and son at long last. They would finally be a family as they always should have been. But then again, why was there this feeling of dread surrounding him? Should he not be feeling happy that he was going to be reunited with his family finally?

"Kazama Arashi," a dark and forbidding voice called out. Turning towards the voice, which took a lot more energy than is should, the blond turned to 'see' the silhouette of what he only presumed to be the God of Death, but he was walking towards him upside down. Or was it him that was upside down? Either way, it did not matter to him, he was dead and there was nothing he could do about it. He did notice that as the death deity came closer to him, he seemed to gradually turn right side up. Finally, the cloaked figure was in front of him and stopped without a sound.

"Are you going to take me to see my wife and son?" the Yellow Flash asked, a hint of hope in his voice, but otherwise emotionless voice as to not angry the death deity in anyway. He knew not to angry any gods or goddesses in anyways, for they could -and would- damn the rest of your life. Something he was not willing to risk for if he angered this particular god, than he might very well not get a chance to ever see his wife or son again in his after life.

A sinking feeling in his gut started to form when Shinigami started to shake his head back and forth slowly in a negative manor. "That I cannot do, Kazama Arashi, for you must choose first."

The feeling within his gut became stronger at the deity's words and if he had a body, he was sure that it would have paled. He did not know what the God of Death meant by choose, but he had a feeling he was not going to like it. Arashi also wondered if this was some type of punishment for displeasing the god in any particular way. He did not remember doing anything to disrespect the dead; on the contrary, he had the Memorial Stone put in place to respect the dead. So why did he have to choose? And more importantly, what was he choosing from?

"Gomen nasai, Shinigami-sama, but I don't understand," Arashi explained, being as polite as he possible could. If he had a body, he would have bowed to show his respect, but he did not, so he could not. "What must I chose?"

"You must chose to be with either your wife-," Shinigami stated, waving his left hand towards the side, where a portal opened up letting a steam of bright white light in.

Arashi was overcome by the brightness of the light, even though he had not body, and could not 'see' anything for a few seconds, but when he could, he also could not believe what he 'saw'. There, standing in the portal with the white light surrounding her, stood his wife. Her beautiful dark blue eyes shown with happiness and warmth that he had not seen in years while dancing with mischief. Long flowing auburn hair cascaded down her back and a crossed tanned skin that seemed perfect in the lighting. The beautiful gold kimono with the red obi that he had chosen to bury her in looked brand new and perfect on her. But what got him the most was the lovely smile adoring her face and the way she held her arms out as if inviting him to her.

"-or your son," the God of Death finished, holding out his right hand towards his other side.

This time, instead of a pure and innocent portal that opened out, a vortex that was darker than the rest of the world that he was currently in came to life. In side of the vortex, a silhouette could be seen. Arashi could not make out any detail about what the person looked like, just that it looked to be a child at the verge of puberty. Nonetheless, the Yondaime knew that this silhouette was of his son. But the silhouette did not make any movement to welcome him. Instead, it seemed to actually shrike away from him, growing smaller and smaller.

"Nani? Why?" the blond all but shouted at the deity, pride be damned. For he was making him make the hardest decision of his life, afterlife. To choose between the two most important people in his life that he had not seen in almost twelve years. "Why are you doing this to me?"

"Because," Shinigami said, ignoring the outburst, "the living and the dead cannot be together. Not matter what the circumstances are."

"What? What do you mean? My wife and son are both dead!"

"Your mind does not see what your heart has already discovered," the death deity said cryptically. "Your son lives and has been alive for the past twelve years. Now, it is your choice, do you want to go and spend the rest of you afterlife with your wife or would you like to go back to the living world and be with your son?"

"My son, is alive?" Arashi asked himself more than the God of Death in disbelief.

* * *

Frenzy. That was the only way to describe Sasuke's mind at the moment. He did not know what was going on, but knew something big had happened. It was just, no one would tell him what was happening and his mind would not quit working. Neither would his mind stay on one subject for long and was jumping back and forth between what he knew had happened and what was happening now. He could not, for the life of him, figure out all that was going on with his mind working the way it was. Everything that had happened had gone by so fast that it was only now that his brain had the chance to comprehend everything, yet with everything that was digested questions came with it. It was just that those questions were piling up and were not being answered, which was really bugging him.

Nonetheless, he did understand some of what was going on. The last thing he remembered before waking up in the hospital was that he was trying to fight his way towards the gates of Konoha towards _Itachi _and Naruto. It was then that a that the young Uchiha knew that something bad had just occurred and turned just in time to see the building that the Hokage had been fighting on crumple. The feeling of death -for that was the only way to describe it- flowed strongly through his body and a feeling of dread washed over him. That was the last thing he remembered before being knocked unconscious by a very -_very_- violent wave of power.

The next thing he knew, he woke up in the hospital and even though his room was empty save him -something that he figured was because he was an Uchiha- there was a lot of hustle and bustle outside his door. He did not know what was going on, but he soon found out by just listening to the commotion outside his door. The village was no longer under attack and it was nearing night -day of the attack- by the time he woke up. The hospital was so overflowing with work, treating the many wounded shinobi and citizens alike who had been injured during the invasion. It was also because the Yondaime Hokage seemed to be hanging on to a thread of life. Being on the doorstep of death and the doctors were working frantically to save him.

What he did not know was what had happened to the attacking ninjas. He figured that they had retreated, but he did not know why and it was bugging him. Nonetheless, that was something that was at the back on his mind, for what really was worrying him was what happened with the tailed beasts and Itachi and Naruto. No one seemed to be talking about that, for they were all to worried about the Hokage. But personally, Sasuke thought they were too afraid to talk about it, for they did not know what to make of it and humans feared what they could not understand. One being how the Kyuubi no Kitsune was still alive.

As far as he knew, the only reason that the whole town was still in one piece and functioning properly was because of the Sandaime Hokage. He had pulled himself out of retirement to _temporarily _take charge while Arashi was recovering, because he believed that the man would get better. He just _had_ to. Or at least that was what he heard when he had been pretending to be asleep when the last nurses came to cheek on him. They did not stay long, having a _lot_ of other injured to take care of, but since they thought he was asleep, they did let a lot of things slip. Sasuke just wished that they had said what had happened to any of his teammates.

Hearing more rustling outside of his room, the young Uchiha closed his eye and feigned sleep. Listening the footsteps draw closer to his room, the raven also heard voices talking in a hurry. Yet what he heard, he wished he had not.

"-ow! _He_ was in the room last time I checked!" a frantic female voice -probably a nurse- screeched in despair.

"Well he couldn't have just got up and left on his own, he was too badly wounded to do so," an angry male voice hiss. One of which Sasuke instantly recognized as Zabuza.

"Now, now, Hatake-san, please calm down and let Yumi-san go. There is nothing to worry about," another male voice tried to calm the angry sounding Demon down. Someone that Sasuke figured was a doctor. The doctor continued to talk, but the pretend slumbering Uchiha could not hear what he said for a loud footstep, almost as if someone was running, echoed off the walls drowning out what the doctor had to say.

"Doctor! _Doctor! _The two boys from room 304 are gone!" a new female voice shouted at the echoes of the footsteps subsided.

"What do you mean they are gone, _too_?" an unnervingly calm Demon asked as a wave of killer intent washed throughout the hospital. The amount of killer intent caused even Sasuke to stiffen immensely even though he was using all his will power to not reacted, his body was not listening.

"Ha-at-at-ke-san," the doctor said in a shaky voice, the amount of killer intent Zabuza was giving off was greatly affecting him and Sasuke knew that it was directed at the doctor and the other two females. "Pl-leas-se, calm do-down."

"I will _not_ calm down, until you can tell me _what the fuck happened to__** my **__**nephews!**_"

Sasuke's eyes snapped open and without thinking at all, he let his body react on its own accordance. He did not realize that he had leapt out through the window and on to a near by roof before bouncing off again. He did not realize where he was going, but he _knew _he had to get there fast. He _knew _that his body would take him to the place he sought out. He _knew _it was the place where he would get the answers he wanted. Vaguely, as he was jumping from rooftop to rooftop, Sasuke noticed that he was still wearing his regular clothing and he had not been changed into a hospital gown when he was in the hospital. Something he was very thankful for.

Also, as he let his body move on its own, the young Uchiha saw the damage done to Konohagakure because of the invasion. The buildings in the center of the village were left unharmed, but as he moved outwards, closer to the edge of the village, small things began to alert the Uchiha that fights had broke out in these places. At first, it was just things that were turned over in the roadways and some of the plant life had been uprooted and torn out. But moving outwards there were scorch marks of what could only be from explosive tags and smoke bombs on the ground and the walls of buildings. Then there were little crater in the road and holes in the buildings but the worse was nearest to the gate where whole sides of buildings had been demolished and one could see all signs of elemental jutsu that had been used. There was even a carcass of a giant snake, very much like the one that had attach him while in the Forest of Death, lying on top of a destroyed building, eyes glazed over unseeing.

Yet, none of this really registered in his mind, Sasuke had only one thing in mind and that was to find out what had happen to Naruto. He knew that he had been in the hospital and badly wounded since Zabuza seemed to be on the verge of killing the doctors and nurses, but the boy had also disappeared along with his older brothers. And judging by the way the nurse was talking, it had not been that long ago that they had vanished from the hospital. Something that did not help him had all. He needed to know what had happened to the blond hair boy. He needed to find him and make sure he was all right. He _needed_ to know why his brother was after the boy. And he needed to get these answers and many more.

And the only place he could think of to find said answers, was at the one place he would have never had thought to even look for them. The one place that he was at everyday and did not even give a second thought about and the secrets, which were held up inside of it. If it had not been for his body reacting on its own and taking him there, he would have never of thought to come here himself. With one finally burst of speed, Sasuke came to a halt at his destination.

The Uchiha Manor.

With his mind now in control of his body, Sasuke ran into the dark and empty mansion and through the front door. He briefly took note that there was not a single thing had disturbed since he last been there meaning that the battle had not come the Uchiha compound and that his cousin had not set foot within the house since then either. Other than that, the young Uchiha did not notice anything else around him as it all blurred together, his mind only on one thing. He did not even have to think as his feet took him through the mazelike hallways of the mansion.

He only stopped for a second when he came to the doors that would lead him to the answers that he sought, but a second was all it took for him to make his decision. No matter how hard a decision it was, for Sasuke knew that if he went beyond the doors in front of him, life as he knew it would never be the same. The doors, unlike any other door in the Uchiha Manor -any other door to his knowledge- were different for the sole reason that they were alive. So to speak that is. Only one that was truly worth were allowed to pass through the door and inside to the chamber that was hidden from all others. If one was not worthy, the doors would not give way under any amount of strength or attacks. The doors would even go as far as electrocuting or burning a person if they keep on trying to open the doors.

Before the massacre, his mother, Mikoto, used to tell him stories from a book that had came from within the chamber. The book, Mikoto had told him, was only meant for the eyes of the Uchiha clan and only if they were able to get within the chamber that held the book. She had told him that the book held secrets that the world had long forgot and it was up to them, the Uchiha clan to help remind them. At the time, Sasuke did not understand the importance of what his mother was telling him, but nodded his head every time because he was eager to hear the stories within the book. Stories that he had forgotten after the massacre of the Uchiha clan.

Stories that he no longer thought of as just stories anymore. Because, for the last few months, he was living the stories he was told. The stories of the ancient gods and goddesses and the protectors of the land the deities' themselves chose to do their bidding on Earth. The stories of Tenshi that roamed the lands unseen and bringing miracles to the ones that had lost all hope and deserved a second chance. The stories of forgotten evils that wanted nothing more than to destroy the world.

Taking one more glancing look at the plan, but ancient looking wooden doors, Sasuke took a deep breath before placing his palms on either door, for their were no door-handles to open the doors. It was now up to the doors to decide whether or not he was truly worth in entering the room. With a light push, hoping upon hope that he would not be electrocuted or burned by the doors, the young Uchiha was more than surprised when the doors gave way to his light, but gentle, push. The two doors opened with ease and the raven was let into the chamber.

Inside the chamber, the young teen looked around slowly. The room was simple yet sophisticated. There was darkness all around, yet there was light filtering into the room. The room was mundane, yet there was a godlike quality to it. The chamber was a contradiction to itself in everyway. It was absurd, but it was beautiful. Nevertheless, even with everything seemingly so wrong and unnatural about the room, Sasuke did not care about any of it. Instead, his eyes landed on the one thing he was looking for, the one thing that he was sure to give him the answers he needed. For there, lying innocently on a pedestal was the leather-bonded book that his mother used to read him stories from. The Uchiha crest embossed into the leather.

Opening the book -when he had walked over there and picked the book up, even Sasuke did not know- up gentle as possible so he would not destroy the Uchiha heirloom, the teen was meet with old faded pages of the book with no words written upon the discolored paper. His eyes widened as he flipped through the book, looking for anything other than the blank pages, but there was nothing. No words, no kanji, no ancient runes, nothing. He was about to do something that he would latter regret when something caught his eye. Flipping back a few pages, Sasuke found some ancient looking writings that he could not understand, but, before his very eyes, the writing seemed to come alive and rearrange itself to something that he could actually read.

It was a mixture kanji, katakana, and hiragana, which were faded with time yet, just like the room that he stood in, they contradicted themselves by looking like they were freshly inked in, the ink seeming to appear still wet. The characters themselves told of a story that he vaguely remembered his mother telling him, one of his favorite when he was still a childhood at that. The story was about nine forest creatures that banned together to protect their homelands from the invading humans. However, it was only because of the youngest creature, a small kitsune that was the runt of its litter, that the nine creatures were able to save their forest and not the scheming snake that was said to be the most powerful creature. At the end of the story, all of the nine creatures were gifted by the gods for their heroic deeds and became something more.

As a child, Sasuke had always liked the story, and as his eyes skimmed over the story once more, he remembered why. The kitsune, although being the runt of its litter and its weak appearance, was quite determined. The kitsune had all the traits of any other kitsune, skittish, sly, cunning, and a trickster, but it had one more as well. It was happy and loved making the other animals happy. Whereas, the snake -Itachi's favorite animal in the story- was of the gloomy, shady sort. It did not care about others and only wanted to save the forest for selfish reasons, which was the reason why the kitsune was able to save the forest and the snake could not.

It was also at this time that Sasuke started to notice something. The little furry animals in the story started to sound more and more like something else. Something that he himself was not quite well educated in, but he knew enough about them to make the connection. The facts just seemed to fall into place for him. The gloomy, shady snake with its poisonous bite and selfish ways. The happy, innocent kitsune that was determined to never give up and had a will of fire. The tanuki, the neko, the turtle, and the rest of the nine forest creatures.

They were the nine _bijū._

That or they were the descendants of the original nine-tailed beast, because in the story the kitsune was described as a little brown runt of a furball. It was obvious to him now more than ever that, this was what he was looking for. The book held the answers he needed and with the turn of the page, it even further showed him that the book was an answer to all his questions. For there, on the top of the next page as the title, in elegant calligraphy, were two kanji. One being for 'Pure' and the other being that of 'One'_._

"So you have finally found the book of the Uchiha clan."

In one swift fluid moment, Sasuke had turned around to face the soft feminine voice of the intruder. Slightly ashamed of himself for letting someone sneak up on him like that, but at the same time he was taken back that someone had came into his home and made it pass the 'living doors'. However, his astonishment was put to rest when he saw exactly who it was that stood before him. For there, before him stood three people, all three of them he recognized even though he had only met two of them in person. Even though he knew that their names were Tenpi and Tsuki, and their brother's name was Tomoe, those were not the names that came out of his mouth.

"Tsukiyomi-sama, Amaterasu-sama, Susanoo-sama," Sasuke said before he clamped his mouth shut and his eyes widened while wondering what had compelled him to say such things. It was only when he saw the two females smile faintly and nod their heads did the Uchiha understood that he had called them by their true names. He just did not know how he knew. "Why are you here?" the boy asked weakly after a moment of silence.

"To tell you the truth and give you the answers you seek," Susanoo answered. However, his voice was very solemn and had a hint of sadness to it, making Sasuke wonder.

Looking over towards the two goddesses, the raven saw them give him a sad small smile and he felt his stomach drop. He knew he was finally going to get the answers that he sought and much -_much_- more than that. He just did not know how much more that he was going to get. He did not know that in the next few hours that the world he as he knew it would change forever more. He was going to learn that there was a lot more going on than what there seemed to be.

"We are here to tell you about the true history of the Uchiha clan," Amaterasu said softly, her words wrapped in a warmth that seemed to make the teenage Uchiha a little less nervous. Tsukiyomi than took over for her sister from there and began the explanation that he very well deserved. After all, it was his heritage and he had a right to know.

"You want to know what has all happened in the last few days, but you must first know what has happened in the past. Moreover, you needed to know how the Destroyer -your own brother- came to be and why he is after the Pure One, Naruto…"

* * *

A yelp of pain rang out throughout the cave like room as Orochimaru fell brutally to the ground. The snake's body was covered in cuts and slashes, obvious signs of a fight. However, one could also tell that some of them were also signs of torture, which he had been recently faced with, as well. His hair was in a tangled mass and was covered in grim and blood, while his skin was even worse for wear than that. Being an unusual sickly looking pale color and covered in so much blood that it was impossible to determine where the blood came from, the snake's skin looked like it was long overdue to be shed, but he was not going to be able to shed his skin anytime soon. However, his arms looked to be even worse off, even with his body being a sickly yellow color; his arms were a grayish color and were deprived of all muscle.

"You insolent, conniving menace!" hissed Orochimaru's torturer as he was violently knocked around again by a giant snake. "You ruined the one chance I've had to capture the Pure One! If it wasn't for you and your scheming plans than I would have finally had the boy in my clutches as we speak!"

Another blow was landed on Orochimaru with enough force that he was sent flying into the rocky room's wall. The jagged rocks biting into his back, but also allowing him to look up at his tormentor. The fine pale complexion along with his dark eyes and raven locks gave him away as being of higher status than many. A noble even. Nevertheless, the shape of his eyes and coldness behind them told of malice and wickedness. The scars, running from the inner part of his eyes out towards his cheeks in a downwards motion, showed that he was not one unfamiliar with the ways of war and pain.

With the way the man looked, he could have been a fallen angel or a god in disguise. Orochimaru knew otherwise. The man was anything but an angel, the total opposite really. He was more like the devil; the snakes that he summoned to do his bidding even further confirmed the fact. However, he should not be one to speak, for he too used snakes to do his evil as well, but even then, his sins did not even come close to matching the teen's sins. Itachi was on a completely different level of evil than anyone could have imagined possible. One would think that the teen before him was not even mortal anymore with all he had done, but he was. At least, he was still mortal for the moment.

"You should be grateful that I have even left you alive," Itachi hissed out, making eye contacted with the beaten snake before him. He took great pleasure in watching the old Sannin divert his eyes away and bow down to him, showing him a sign of submission. It also made the weasel feel superior for the man was now at his mercy. He could do anything he wanted to the snake and he would not even have the power to stop him, his arms rendered useless by the Forth Hokage. He could even kill the worthless Sannin and be through with him at the moment. It would not take more than a snap of his fingers and his snake would devour Orochimaru whole.

Only one thing was stopping him though. He knew that Orochimaru had spoiled his plans by trying to carry out his own intentions, something that the snake had thought he keep a secret from him. Oh, he knew all about his plans, his intent to capture his pathetic younger brother and take over his body in hopes of using it to take over Konohagakure. Itachi was aware that the snake was trying to kill him and take his powers, but he did not care. He understood Orochimaru's every intention, but he knew no matter what the snake did, he could never hope to win against him, not even with his brother's body at his disposal.

The only reason that he had not killed the Snake Sannin yet was because he was able to give him something that no other being -mortal or immortal- had been able to give him. Orochimaru gave him the identity of the Pure One. He now knew who the Pure One was and what he looked like. Uzumaki Naruto.

The snake had also been able to show him that he was not as prepared as he thought he was. Even though Itachi knew for a fact with the short time fighting, the Pure One that the young boy was nowhere near matched in power with him. Nonetheless, the fight had revealed to him that he had not gotten rid of the Kyuubi no Kitsune like he thought he had all those years ago. It looked like the one bijū that was able to bet the Hachibi no Orochi was still alive. He should have known by poisoning the kitsune with one of Quetzalcoatl's special shurikens and having the beast go on a raving rampage -hoping that some mortal was able to kill it off- would never have worked. But he was still a child in body at that time and a big part of childhood was learning form mistakes, this was just one of his mistakes he needed to fix in order to achieve world domination.

Itachi just wished that the Yondaime had not summoned the Shinigami though, or else he might have been able to deal with it and been able to capture the Pure One. Nonetheless, he was no fool and when the God of Death was summoned -because of Orochimaru's mistake- he made his retreat, knowing that he could not challenge the power of Shinigami. Yet. Once he had the Pure One in his grasps then he would challenge Death, but not until then. Till that time came, he would have to wait and in time, he would be rid of another pain in his side. The Yondaime, for he had to have died in order to summon the God of Death.

Signing, Itachi snapped his figures and watched as Orochimaru flinched, expecting an excruciating amount of pain given to him by the giant snake. He was not disappointed. However, the pain did not come from the snake's blows, but something tearing at his arms and what felt like poison being poured into his veins. Once the pain was over, the Snake Sannin looked down at his arms, and the rest of his body for that matter, to see that they were completely healed. His arms, once rendered lifeless by the Shinigami himself, were now back to normal and his body did not look like it had been through hell and back.

"You have one more chance to find the Pure One for me, Orochimaru!" Itachi hissed. "This time don't mess up!"

"Hai, Master," Orochimaru said, bowing on his knees while his nose touched the ground. All the while mentally wanting to kill the teen who sat before him. The young man who was able to strike such fear into his core he would willingly lower himself in such a degrading manner. He would kill him and when he did, he would make sure that the teen felt just as much humiliation as he felt every time he had to bow to the raven.

* * *

It was a long time before Arashi was finally able to decide on what he wanted to do, because it was one of the hardest decisions he had to ever face. Go to the paradise that all longed to arrive at when they died, where he did not have to worry about anything and could live his much deserved afterlife in peace. Where he would finally see his wife after twelve years and he could hear soft laughter and bask in her warmth once again. He could finally hold her and be with her always, living the rest of their afterlife in peace. However, on the other hand, he could go back to the living world and hold onto his son. He could finally get to know his son and be the father he always wanted to be.

Looking once last time back and forth between the two different portals, the Yondaime turned towards the lightly lit portal that held his wife and slowly started towards it. Once he was right in front of the portal, Arashi stopped and looked sadly at his wife. It was now or never and with one reassuring smile, the blond haired man went through with his decision.

"I'm sorry, koi," the man apologized, feeling slightly guilty for what he was doing, "but I just can't leave our son on his own, not when I came do something about it. I just can't do it."

However, instead of anything, he had expected the woman to do; Arashi was caught off guard when he saw his wife give him her brightest smile and nodding her head. The slight messaged incased inside of her eyes did not go unread, something that he had to laugh at once the messaged had fully comprehended. After all, it was just like his wife to promise bodily harm on him for abandoning their son and if he went with her, she would make sure he slept on the couch for an eon. Not a pleasant thought.

Seeing the white portal and the image of his wife start to fade, Arashi automatically tried to reach out his hand to touch her, yet since he had no body, therefore he had no hand, and he did not catch anything. He was able to catch the whispers of the words of the departing female.

"I love you, forever and always."

"I love you, forever and always as well," Arashi answered back just before the portal faded away completely. It took him a couple of seconds before he could finally regain his bearings and turned back towards the God of Death. Seeing that he was still standing, waiting for him, the blond haired man took a deep breath before going on, wishing that he could bow to show the god his respect but knowing he could not. "I want to go back to my son, if that is okay with you Shinigami-sama."

Seeing that the Hokage was finally done saying goodbye to his wife, Shinigami had to smile -even though it went unseen- at his decision. He had already knew the man's answer to his question long before he even asked it, but he still had to ask. If, by some abnormal and unexplainable turn of events, that Arashi had wanted to go with his wife instead of going back, he would have to respect his decision and sent him to paradise because with all he had done, the Yondaime deserved it. However, if that were to happen, the God of Death would have lost all respect he had for the man. Abandoning his son -who was being put through more trials would have sent any normal person to an early grave- that his only personal goal was to make his father proud, even though he had never meet him before, that was beyond sinful.

"Very well," the God of Death said in a very professional manor, waving his hand as the second portal than closed as well. He did not miss the other man's confused expression on his face as he closed the second portal, seeing as how he might have thought that was the way he would have to travel though in order to get to his body. "I summon thee, Goddess of Rice, Fertility, and Foxes, Inari. I summon thee, God of Rice and Foxes, Inari. Come hither, bring forth your power and all that you may be. For I -the God of Death, Shinigami- beckon thee."

There was silence for the first few seconds, Arashi not wanting to asked why the God of Death had summoned the fox deities- before the a soft sound started to echo throughout the blackness. Slowly, the noises became louder and louder until the blond haired man was able to make out the sounds of a pack of canines of some kind and two sets of footsteps coming their way. The man was proven right when he saw four familiar pure white foxes with brown eyes coming his way. It only took a few seconds for Arashi to recognize the foxes as the four that Naruto and Kyuubi had brought with them to the party, yet his mind was taken by who their owners' were. The God and Goddess Inari.

"Shinigami," the goddess said, bowing slightly as her brother followed suit. "I take it agreed?"

"He has," Shinigami answered, also giving the two a bow before straightening up and looking the two both, in turn, directly in the eyes. "But I want to make sure both of you know what your doing-"

"Hai," the male fox god said, cutting of the other god. "We know exactly what we are doing and what has to be scarified. Even though we know this, we are still willing to go through with it. Not for anyone else but Chibi One. That is who we are doing this for and no one else, even though the rest of the world is on the line. We are only doing this for Chibi One's sake."

"I understand and respect what you are doing," the death deity responded. "However, wouldn't you be making your Chosen One just as sad as he would be if you two go through with this?"

"Hai," the fox goddess softly answered this time. The twin deities did not bother to look at the other deity this time, both of them knowing how Naruto would feel when all of this was over. However, they knew what they were doing and Naruto would understand, he always did, besides this was what they wanted to do. "We know, but he also understands a lot more than any normal person would about why we have to do this. He will respect our decision."

"I apologize for interrupting, but what's going on?" Arashi asked, finally not being able to take being left out of their conversations. Especially knowing that it was most likely about him -even if his name was not mentioned he knew it had something to do with him too- and not knowing what was going to be happening to him. At first the three deities looked at him -the two fox deities startled that he did not know what was going on- before the Goddess Inari gave him a small comforting smile.

"Iie, we should be the ones apologizing to you for not telling you what's going on. It is involving you after all," the goddess said sweetly. "You see, since you used the seal that you did to try and defeat Orochimaru, you already signed your own death. You should have gone straight to heaven, no chance at all to go back to the living world-

"-however, we formed a sort of bound that all but tied your soul to your body," the twin brother took up for his sister. "There was only one way to tie your soul fully to your body, to give you another chance at life, and that is why we are here. To complete what we have started, to fully bind your soul to your body by using one's life force and wrap it around the soul and body. You don't have to worry, nothing bad will come of it, you will retain some of our memories and some of our minor abilities -like talking to foxes and your senses might increase- but that's it. Most of our power will be used up in binding your soul back to your body, but what is left will be pass on to our Heir."

"I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't understand completely," Arashi whispered out, even though he had a vague idea on what was going to be happening. He just hoped he was wrong.

"In other words, we are here to exchange our lives for yours," the twins answered as one.

* * *

Sasuke just stood there, slowly thinking everything over as the three deities around him watched him with concern. He had been quiet for over a half an hour now and he did not look like he would be saying anything anytime soon. However, the triplets were all patient and could wait for their descendant. They knew that he was going to be asking questions, since he had not interrupted them at any point through the story and instead listened to it all the way through first. It was just a little unnerving to have the boy stay so quiet, so still, for a long period of time. Most would have been asking questions immediately and pacing about, trying to comprehend it all. It just went to show them that he was very much their descendant after all.

Finally, after another ten minutes more, the young Uchiha looked up at the three and finally spook. "Can't you do anything to stop him? Anything at all?"

Shaking his head negatively, Susanoo answered the boy. "We cannot, it is against the rules we must follow. Even though he is of our blood, we cannot do anything against him for his sinful acts. That power was taken out of our hands when he became the Chosen One of Quetzalcoatl. Only he could stop the Destroyer, but since he is dead, he cannot. The only way for any of the gods and goddesses to intervene now would be through our Chosen Ones. But even then, most of them have not the power to stand up to the Destroyer anymore. He has become too powerful for them, absorbing the gods and goddesses' powers that he has managed to capture and kill off. But if he gets the Pure One-"

"-_Naruto!_" Sasuke exclaimed, suddenly remembering why he had come to the Uchiha Manor in the first place. "Where's Naruto?!"

Looking back and forth between themselves worriedly, the deities looked back at their descendant with a serious expression on their faces. "We don't know…" Amaterasu admitted truthfully.

"Can't you find him then?" the raven asked distressed.

"We cannot, his chakra is hidden to all, even us deities. It is impossible for us to find him," Tsukiyomi answered guiltily, knowing that the boy's heart was racing since his Soul Mate was missing. However, there was truly nothing they could do about it.

Sasuke tried to think of a way, any way, for him to be able to find Naruto, but he could not come up with anything. Slowly, he sank down to his knees, his body suddenly giving out on him after everything. He hurt all over from the invasion, but no physical pain hurt nearly as badly as his heart did at that moment. His heart felt like it was breaking into two pieces and there was nothing he could do to stop it. His Soul Mate was gone and all his ancestors could do was just watching his heartbreak, knowing that with all the powers that had, they still were not able to help him.

"…I've lost him…"

* * *

What Sasuke did not know at the time was that at the same time he spoke those words, someone had just returned from a place not many returned from. One that had just opened his uniquely colored blue eyes and starred out into the world, seeing it in a completely new light and it was not because of the bright lighting hanging over his head. It was because he now had a new knowledge about the world, knowledge that not many -only a hand full- had. He totally ignored the doctors and nurses around him that were looking at him with amazement and joy that he was alive. Their Yondaime was alive.

However, his mind was on something else. Actually, it was on someone else. One little blond haired blue-eyed genin. A blond haired blue-eyed genin that looked too much like him to be a mere coincidence. A blond haired blue-eyed genin that just so happened to also be related to him. The memories of the god and goddess that scarified there immortal lives to save his -an ordinary human's live- flowing through his head. He remembered things that he had never done and knew more things than an average person would know, but none of the competed with the knowledge of a blond haired blue-eyed genin.

His son.

Slowly, with all the strength he still held within in his body, which was not a lot seeing as he had been on the verge of death, if not even further than that, the Yondaime tried to speak. At first he could not for his throat was too dry to allow his vocal cords to work properly, but seeing this, a nurse hurried and got him a glass of water. With the help of the doctors, the nurse propped the man up and slowly tilted the cup back and allowed him to drink the water, something he did so greedily. Once Arashi had his fill, choking on the water somewhat when it went down his windpipe, the cup was pulled away and he tried to speak yet again.

This time his voice came out, but in a raspy sort of way, but he did not care. He only had one thing on his mind and he was determined to get it out. "Where's Naruto?"

The doctors and nurses around him looked around at each other, not sure what to tell their leader, especially about the boy that were able to summon the Kyuubi no Kitsune. Or at least that was what they heard. Instead, the doctors and nurses looked for away out of answering the question by looking at each other hoping that one of them would know what to say. Finally, after much silence, a brave soul decided to try to divert the Yondaime's attention to something else other than the boy.

"Yondaime-sama, with all due respect, shouldn't you be-" the brave soul was cute off when another voice, one more sure of itself yet also one that was more depressed, rose above the weak and soft voice.

"He's gone," Tsunade stated, standing in the doorway with Zabuza and Shizune on either side. Everyone's attention turned towards the woman; however, none were more focused and intense than the Yondaime Hokage himself. They all looked at her, wonder when the woman arrived and what she thought she was doing by telling their leader about the child. They themselves did not know what kind of relationship she had with the demon child. Yet none dared to go against her in anyway, knowing that her tempers were just as legendary as her gambling and drinking habits. No one was going to mess with her.

"What do you mean, gone?" Arashi asked, fear seeping into his voice. He hoped that she did not mean in the gone for good sort of way since he only chose to come back to the living world for his son. The boy just could not die when he was just brought back to life, that would be too cruel.

"He's gone. He left the village as to not put it in the Destroyer's path and cause even more harm to come to this village," Zabuza said flatly, looking the Yondaime in the eyes knowing that he would understand what he was talking about. He could sense that the man not only had been in contact with the god that had chosen him as his Chosen One of sorts, but also he could sense that he, by all natural human rights, should have been dead. It was the gift he got being the God of Death's Chosen One, to be able to sense these types of things.

"But more importantly, him and Kyuubi left alone," Shizune said weakly, alarm still evident in her voice. "We won't be able to find him now. His chakra has become hidden once more and this time, I'm betting, he'll make sure it will stay that way."

"…We've lost him…" Tsunade weakly stated, trying to hold back the sobs that were threatening to burst out and the tears that wanted to fall. It just was not fair. She was losing another one of her precious people. Her brother, her lover, the humble goddess that helped heal her and gave her something to live for -to help others like herself and heal them as like the goddess had her- and now, it looked like she was losing her pseudo family as well. It just was _not _fair. Had not she already been put through enough? Had not Naruto been put through enough?

"…We've lost him…"

* * *

It was hard walking. His whole entire body hurt and aced with pain. He felt like he was going to collapse at any second and it was only a matter of time before he actually did. All it took was a simple, slightly raised, root that his foot happened to catch before he went toppling over. A scream of pain was wrenched from within his battered body when he hit the ground and his body gave a violet reaction. Coughing up blood, he tried to catch his breathe but it was hard. However, when he got his body under control, Naruto slowly picked himself back up.

Even though his body protested against his moment and just wanted him to lie down and rest, the Heir of Foxes continued onwards. His body was slow to move and his movements gawky and awkward. His vision was blurry and fading every few steps and everything around him appeared as a blur. His heartbeat was erratic, causing his ears to ring and pulse to quicken. Sweat poured down his body to cool his feverous skin down and his breathing was anything but regular. In spite of this all, Naruto keep going. Not for himself, but for the others.

He did not want anything to happen to them, knowing he could prevent it. They were finally happy and he was not going to let their long awaited happiness be destroyed. His uncle was finally happy; he seemed to be acting more and more like a kid now, more than ever before. He was not guarded as he had been before and it was all thanks to a certain Uchiha with goggles. His aunt had finally found herself someone she could relate with and talk to endlessly and still have more things to say. She had found herself a best friend in his only female sensei and the positive effect showed in her livelier attitude. Then there was his Obaa-chan, she seemed more alive than ever, even though she was over fifty years old. Despite the fact that she had lost a lot in Konohagakure, being back within its walls brought out the best in her and he did not want to ruin that for her and the rest of his family. He did not want to ruin any of it.

Then there were his brothers. They had been taking care of him since they were children as well and did not give themselves any type of social life. However, when they were situated in Konoha, they finally had their own social life, having had been put on different teams then him when they graduated and he stayed behind in the Academy. They had been forced to socially interact with others and not just with themselves and their family. It was because of that they were where they were now. His Ani had found his happiness and Soul Mate within the Hyuuga Heiress and tearing them apart from one another would be like breaking both their hearts. His Nii-chan was not any better. The ice-boy had formed his own life within Konoha's walls as well and it would shatter him if he was taken away.

That is why, Naruto had left on his own. He did not want to bring the family that raised him anymore suffering by making them leave the one place that they had finally had found a home in, it was not right. However, if he stayed there with them, then the Destroyer would no doubtable come back for him and demolish not only their happiness, but the village as well. That was something that he would not allow to rest upon his conscience, even though most of the villagers there did not like him, there was a small handful that had become very close to him. People that he would do anything for just to make them happy, just like his family.

Leaning up against a nearby tree, Naruto stopped for a few seconds to catch his rapidly leaving breath. While resting, the blond boy turned his head and looked behind him. He could just faintly see the outline of Konohagakure now, the treetops and foliage covering the rest of his vision of the city. The place looked so peaceful and perfected from where he stood and he wanted nothing more than to turn around and return to the village. Nevertheless, he could not and this would probably be the last time he saw the village for a very, very long time.

Feeling something pulling at the bottom of his war-torn pant leg, Naruto looked down to see Kyuubi giving him a worried look, yet the little fox did not say anything. He knew why the blond had settled on making the decision and he agreed with him. It was the right thing to do, but he still could see the hurt and pain it caused to his very soul for doing such a thing. He really did not want the Pure One to feel that way, yet there was nothing he could really do for the boy. He would stay by his side and do the best he could to help his master.

Giving a soft purr, Kyuubi rubbed himself up against Naruto's leg, calming him down somewhat while pushing some of his own chakra into the boy. Unlike him, the Heir of Foxes did not have any extraordinary healing powers that could heal him quickly. He did have a higher healing rate than most humans did though, but nothing like a full demon as the small kitsune was. Hearing the slight change in the boy's heartbeat as it became a bit more stable; stabling his breathing as well, Kyuubi stopped the flow of chakra into the blond.

"You know you didn't have to do that?" Naruto asked softly once he was finished, but did not chastise the fox for doing so; after all, he would have done the same thing if he was in Kyuubi's place. "I was fine without it."

"_But you're even better off now,"_ the fox replied, purring some more since it seemed to soothe the boy.

Not responding to his familiar verbally, Naruto pushed off the tree and started to walk onwards again. His pace a little steadier than before, but it was still obvious that he was hurt badly. The duo continued to walk in silence after that, not wanting to say anything for they had nothing else to say. They both were too tired to talk anyways, yet that was not going to stop them from keep on going. They needed to leave and if they stopped, the two of them both knew that they might not have the heart to continue on at a later time. They would have turned around and gone back to the first place they had ever called home.

Stumbling once again, Naruto braced himself for the impact on the hard ground, having the air knocked out of him yet again. It did not come. Instead, he felt soft warm hands wrap around him and stop his body from hitting the ground. A surprised gasp from the blond caused him to breathe in the scent of everything around him and he immediately realized what was going on. He did not say anything right away, but instead let himself be carefully set on the ground and turned around to face the one who had caught him. However, he would not allow himself to look up and instead looked down at his hands in his lap that would not stop fidgeting.

"What are you doing here?" the Pure One asked quietly, not looking up even though he knew that he was being glared at.

"What are we doing here?" a growled voice repeated. "What are _we_ doing here?! What do you think we're?!"

Naruto did not say anything, but a whimper escaped his lips and tears started to collect at the corner of his eyes. Instead, he just allowed the other to continue to yell at him and did nothing to defend himself. He lowered his head even more and tried to hold back the tears.

"Gaara, calm down," Haku's soft, but firm voice commanded. Hearing a slight shuffling at his side before feeling a presence at his side and a cold hand being laid on his shoulder -one of which he could feel even through his tattered material- Naruto stiffened greatly. Nonetheless, the hand did not remove himself and another found its way under his chin before lifting his head up to for teary blue eyes to meet worried brown ones. Seeing the tears in his brother's eyes that started to fall, Haku pulled his little brother into a warm hug and tried to soothe him.

"Why are you here? Why did you follow me? You guys are happy in Konoha, you have a life -a future- there. Both of you have people there that care about you greatly. You're throwing it all away by following me! So why then?" Naruto cried out, his brothers' hearts wrenching at the sheer amount of despair and anguish in his voice while Haku continued to hugging him while rocking back and forth. "_**Why?!**_"

"Because, you are the reason why we are happy in Konoha. You are the reason why we have a future in Konoha. And you are the reason why we found people in Konoha that care about us greatly," the ice-boy quietly cooed, petting Naruto's blond hair in a comforting way. "If it wasn't for you we would have never come to Konoha, we wouldn't have found happiness, because you were the one that gave us our happiness. You are our brother and we would never abandon you."

"Bu-ut, wha-t a-bout Hina-ata-chan and th-e oth-ers?" the Pure One asked in between hiccups, looking up at Gaara.

"I've already talked to her about it and she understands. She was the one that helped us get out of the hospital without anyone noticing us after all," Gaara replied, all earlier evidence of his anger gone at seeing his little brother in this state. He could tell leaving them was not something he was doing because he wanted to, but it was because he was being his usual selfless self and doing it for them and the sake of the others. "Though she did threaten me to make sure to bring you back alive or else I'd be dead because her 'sweet little Naru-chan' did not deserve to die."

Naruto chuckled somewhat at Gaara's explanation of what Hinata had done, knowing that was probably exactly what she had done before giving him a kiss and telling him to come back safe as well. Sitting in comfortably in Haku's embrace for a little longer, Naruto let himself calm down some. Once he was sure all his tears were dried up, the Heir of Foxes looked around him. First at Kyuubi who had sat quietly at his side throughout the whole ordeal and then at his two brothers that were looking at him concernedly.

"Are you sure you want to come with?" Naruto asked after finally finding the courage to speak. "We probably won't be coming back for a long time."

Smiling at the blond boy in his arms, Haku nodded his head. "Yes, we're sure, because-"

"-that is what family is for," Gaara finished for Haku.

"_Being together and helping them through thick and thin,"_ Kyuubi barked out, wagging his one tail.

Nodding his head, Naruto, with the help of his brothers and Kyuubi, stood up and began making there way out of Konoha. The sun setting as the just began their journey of a lifetime. Together and on there own, just the three brothers and a kitsune, making their way into the unknown and not knowing what lay ahead of them. All they knew was that needed to grow stronger in order to protect their precious people from the Destroy. Never once did they look back and never once did they think twice about their decision, for they knew, if they turned back now, the world was as good as dead.

As they disappeared from Konoha as the sun disappeared from sight on that very night, a soft breeze blew, carrying the last message of the now deceased fox deities.

"_Happy Birthday Kazama Uzumaki Naruto. A wingless Tenshi. Our Chosen One. A Pure One and the Heir of Foxes."_

Thanks for all the reviews, they were the only thing keeping me writing this story at the moment. School just takes up so much time I have no wanting to write anymore after everything I do, but I don't want to let everyone down either. So thanks to those of you that do review.

**_Shi no Tenshi 902_**

* * *


	26. Evolution in Time

New Chapter, be happy, I had to rewrite this whole entire thing. I had just finished writing the story, and then my computer crashed because of spywear and a trogen, everything was erased. To make matters even worse, my brother lost my flashdrive with my story back up on it and much, much more. New Chapter, be happy.

* * *

Night. The time between dawn and twilight. A time that many would be safely tucked into their beds with their heads nestled on soft and fluffy pillow. A time that many people slept away and would wake again to the call of the early morning birds as dawn stretched into view. It was also a time that people feared as well. For night served as another purpose too.

Night. The time between sunset and sunrise. A time that the warriors of the shadow would be rising from their futons and rough beddings. A time that the warriors of the shadow would rise to the howling wolves and flickering stars above to take on their mission for the night. For they were ninjas and the night was their cover -their mask- to prey on their enemies' fears. Fears that were very well justifiable.

In recent years, the fear of the darkness had increased drastically. With the rise of Otogakure and its powers of what was once myths that was nothing short of reality now. Mythology had come to life and with it brought with chaos. The people that had been repressed from society because of their unnatural -mythical- powers were now revered and feared. The true origins of many bloodlines were exposed and the knowledge exploited by power hungry fools. Further raised Otogakure power. For the fools that wanted more power and held the blood of the gods and goddesses inside them journeyed to the Village Hidden in the Sound. Seeking higher rank, power, and respect -if one could even call it that- that they felt that they deserved. They did not know that they were traveling down the road straight to hell.

Not only did Otogakure recruit more warriors this way, but many other nations as well to advantage of the tainted souls derived from the deities looking for power. As for those unlucky few that wanted nothing to do with power and were not fortunate enough to escape from their power hungry villages, they were made into human-weapons. Those that they could not convert into living-weapons were experimented on, to find a way to the realm of the gods or what many had come to believe 'paradise'. Then there were the others that were not able to leave their corrupted villages in time and the villagers -in order to save themselves- executed the descendants of the gods. Many knew it is because they fear the power these seemingly ordinary people held, even if these people had no knowledge of what they were and what they could do. They were killed without mercy when they could not even defend themselves.

If one were to hear any of this, he or she would believe that it was just the smaller, newer, less organized villages and countries that were participating in these acts. Like the Land of Sound. That the larger, older, and well established countries would do no such thing. They believed that nothing like that could ever happen within the walls of their village and it would never happen to them. If they believed that, they would be wrong. It was the Land of Earth and the Land of Lightning that first took to such acts of using citizens and shinobi alike as human-weapons when it was discovered that many with bloodline limits were actually the descendants of divine beings. It was the Land of Grass and the Land of Rain that started experimenting on all inhabitance that had bloodlines and abilities that were uniquely their own, even if the person was a regular human being. The Land of Water and the Land of Waterfall were the first to take up executing anyone with a bloodline or torture them until they were wishing for death. The only safe zones that had appeared for refugees with bloodlines limits and were treated kindly were the Land of Fire, the Land of Wind, and the Land of Waves. There were also a few smaller villages that did not belong to any nation that took in refugees, but they were small and hard to come by.

It was because of these zones that many took their newly revealed heritage differently. These were the people that did not want the power to destroy and conquer the world and these were the people that were mainly being massacred. Nonetheless, that did not mean that they were just going to stand by and let themselves be killed off. No, far from it actually. The ones that could fight back did so with all their being while letting their families, friends, and others escape to the safe zones. It was because of these people that rumors started to spread of four heroes that saved the lives of many whilst leading them to salvations and a way from the chaos. The story of the four were numerous and gave hope to the ones that needed it the most. Every time all hope was lost, a new story was heard and more people were saved.

The four heroes had many names and titles given to them by their many admirers, but the title that they were best known by would have been the _Gods of the Night_. For, those that had seen them in person, all they could say was that it was something else. Like they were in the presence of a far greater being then themselves, yet none of the members of the group looked down on anyone and treated them with just as much respect as they showed them. They said that the four were everything that they imagined them to be and more. Their enemies feared them, their people loved them, and their peers had to respect them. There was always a shroud of mystery to them that their enemies came to fear and many women -some men too- fell in love with. But there was only a few that knew them as themselves and even then those few did not see the _Gods of the Night_ that often. It was often that all the company the four had, were each other, not that they minded that much, if not at all.

"It is time," a smooth, husky voice called out in the dead of the night to his only constant companions for the last two years. The shadows around him hung close, protecting him from the sight of others, even his companions could not find his silhouette. It was the night of the New Moon, meaning that there was no moonlight to help them out either. Nevertheless, knowing their leader like they did, they all knew that he was close by and judging by how close his voice was, they would have to say he was in the treetops above them somewhere.

"Time for what?" a soft gentle male voice asked. His eyes never once opened from his resting position, knowing that even with them open, he would not see the person he was talking to. Instead of wasting energy looking for him, he would just continue to lean up against the tree and rest. There was no real point in moving and wasting energy that he did not have to waste.

"To return." Short, simple and to the point, that was the typical form of an answer any of them would have gotten. They had never known him to speak more words than necessary in the last two years. He had become quiet, well more quiet than he already was -if that was even possible- but that was not the point

"Return? You mean to Konohagakure, right?" a third, harsher male voice asked. This voice sounding more aggressive, almost as if the person was waiting for someone to attack them at any given moment. But that was because that was the case, they had just been attacked not even an hour ago and after a long hour battle, all the enemy shinobi were dead. Their bodies scattered across the forest for the wild animals to feed on. No mercy was shown, for no mercy was given. "We haven't been back for awhile now, have we?"

"No, we haven't," the fourth member of the group finally spoke up, "not for awhile. Not since the last Chunnin Exam that was held in Konoha, but I can't remember exactly when that was."

"Four months ago."

"What was that Sasuke?" the fourth and only female of the group asked, looking up to her idol and the ANBU captain of their squad in hopes of him immerging from the shadows above. Sadly, she was mistaken and could not even catch a glimpse of his being, yet she knew he was up there, she could feel his chakra. She just could not sense exactly were he was, she had never been able too to begin with and it was a real awkward subject for her.

"I said four months, it has been four months since we have been back in Konohagakure," Sasuke said softly from his hidden perch up in the trees. Suddenly his voice changed into the hard, icy cold voice he used when he when leading a S or SS classified mission. "Get cleaned up and tend to your wounds. Tomorrow, under the guise of the New Moon we head back to Konoha. The first watch will be mine, get some sleep." With that said, the Uchiha tuned out anything else that his teammates had to say and let his mind drift while his body stayed conscious of his surroundings and anything that came into his team's makeshift camping spot.

Looking up into the night sky, Sasuke's gaze watched the gentle twinkle of the stars. His mind wondering over his recent mission which lead to the thought of past missions and started to wonder from there. Finally his mind settled on his new teammates. The three of them were not quite what anybody had envisioned to be teamed up with Sasuke, let alone to be able to function together like a real team. Nevertheless, Sasuke never cared what anyone thought of what he did and was not going to start now. His teammates were people that he could stand to be around and not like any of those other shinobi treated him like a god. He hated it when everyone found out that many of those with bloodlines were descendants of gods, because that just gave the villagers another reason to treat him like royalty. No, the people below him were some of his best companions and comrades. They just were not his best friends.

They all had their own defining traits about them that set them part from the rest of the world and made them more compatible as a team. They worked together nicely and were a great team. However, that did not mean that they all got a long at times, much to his displeasure. He found himself more times than not being the peacekeeper between them. Actually, it was more like he threatened them to get along or they would regret it in someway or another. Thankfully, he had Juugo as his only semi-sane companion.

Juugo was the kindest and most compassionate of the four of them. He was also the tallest of their group, even taller than Sasuke himself, and had a bulky form. His hair was an orange-ish colored that was naturally slicked back and spiky while his eyes were a gentle earth tone color and held a kindness in them that was not seen in many during these times of war. Yet at one point that was not so. When Sasuke first meet Juugo, the man was going insane form split personalities. One a docile, benevolent man, the other a blood thirsty murderer only looking to feed his bloodlust.

Their first meeting was with the murderous Juugo was coming at the Uchiha in an attempt to kill him when he had infiltrated one of Orochimaru's labs. The two fought and Sasuke was about to kill the taller man, when something stopped him. A flare of white chakra had come from him -had come from Naruto through their bond with one another- and turned the murderous Juugo into the docile Juugo that had befriend Sasuke at a later date. Not realizing what was going on, the Uchiha decided to trust the white chakra and lowered his katana, yet he did not let his guard down. Only a fool would do such a thing and a fool he was not.

Talking to the taller man, Sasuke found out he had sought out Orochimaru for help with his split personality. However, his brother's lackey did not do anything to help him. Instead he made it even worse and developed a way to utilize the enzymes that Juugo's body naturally created to design the curse seals. It was then that the Uchiha made a judgment that any good shinobi would not have done, he sheathed his katana and held out his hand to the man. Taking the man back to his sensei and the current Hokage, the three had a nice _long_ chat about a few things and after a little sealing ceremony Juugo became a shinobi of the Leaf.

Thanks to Arashi and his seal, Juugo now had full control of his body and the enzymes that caused his changes. He was now one person with only one personality. He wore the Konoha hitai-ate proudly, but it was rarely seen. It was wrapped around the left side of his black pants parallel to his shuriken holster, which was covered by a dark green cloak that went just passed his knees. The only other thing that Juugo wore was an earth tone shirt that matched his eyes, yet it was also rarely seen since his cloak covered the shirt as well.

The next person to join his group was Karin, the only female in the group. She had the darkest of red eyes and hair to match, but her hairstyle was unusual. The left side was tidy and fell straight to her shoulders while the right was messy and hectic looking. She wore a white lab coat with the end few buttons undone, revealing her bellybutton, and glasses making her look smart. Short, _very _short, black short and knee high shinobi sandals were the only other clothing she donned on her body, save for the Leaf hitai-ate that was wrapped around her right forearm. Other than that, she wore no shuriken holster or weapons pouch. As for her physical appearance, she was slim and only came up to Sasuke's nose at her full height, but she was well endowed in the breast area. Nothing comparing to Tsunade's standards that is.

Sasuke really did not know what to think of her though. They meet at another of Orochimaru's base during a solo mission, her attaching herself to Sasuke just like his fangirls would have right off the bat. The girl flirted with him nonstop and -he did not know how- the next thing he knew was that she was a Leaf ninja and on his team. The only reason the raven could stand being around her was because she only flirted with him while they were alone together and -he thanked ever deity out there he could think of- that did not happen often. Much to his pleasure. But when they were alone, Sasuke ignored her and barely talked to the flirtatious girl. The only reason she was on his team and not somewhere else far away from him was because of her special ability to sense chakra unlike any other that he knew of.

The last to join Sasuke's team was Hozuki Suigetsu. Suigetsu was just as tall as the Uchiha that commanded he, if not a little shorter, and was very skinny. His hair was shoulder length and a light water color blue, almost white, and his eyes were a violet demonic color. His teeth were sharp and razor like, very much like Zabuza's own teeth -that Sasuke only got the unfortunate pleasure of seeing when he was eating over at the Uchiha Manor. He wore a sleeveless purple top and white pants with regular shinobi sandals. Around his torso was a harness that had been plain and empty when they had first meet that now had a hitai-ate incorporated into and a zanbato of Zabuza's caliber filling the emptiness.

It turned out that Suigetsu was training to be a replacement for one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist before they disbanded and like the other two, Sasuke meet him in one of Orochimaru's labs. Actually, to be more precise, the Uchiha meet him in the same lab that he had meet Karin in, only an hour later in a water tank like cell. Apparently, Suigetsu was captured by Orochimaru as a test subject and the results were that Suigetsu could now turn into water. What the raven found more interesting was the fact that when Suigetsu had reached Konoha with Sasuke and Karin, he about died from shock when he saw Zabuza. It was even more amusing when he learned that the former Demon of the Mist had been Sasuke's sensei as well. Nevertheless, with all the information Suigetsu had on him, he still believed himself to be stronger than Sasuke and constantly challenged him. Sasuke never really took the challenges knowing for a fact that he was stronger than the sharkling and did not want to show exactly how much stronger he was.

Not many in Konoha trusted his three new teammates and had not so affectionately nicknamed his ANBU squad Team Hebi because all of them had something to do with Orochimaru. Sasuke never took to consideration of people before and he saw no reason to start to now, his team could take care of themselves and if they let a derogatory nickname bring them down, they had no right being on his team. He did have to say that after all the missions that his team had accomplished and their unwavering loyalty in the last two years had done a lot to change many people's mind about them. Some had even stopped calling them Team Hebi and started to use some of the other nicknames their team had acquired during their travels. However, there was still those select few that could not see passed their past deeds and were still prejudice against his teammates.

As for himself, he had changed a lot in the years that had past by him. He had grown into a handsome strong man. At the age of eighteen, he stood proudly at six foot five and had the complexion of his divine ancestors. Pale skin without a single flaw and muscle that rippled across his body. Eyes of the finest onyx and hair the same color as the night sky had not changed much in the past years, but they had grown. His hair was a little longer while his eyes held the knowledge that a seasoned shinobi should possess. He still wore the necklace that Tazuna and his family had given him so long ago but his outfit had changed to the uniform of an ANBU of Konoha, but he did not own the mask and the traditional katana that went along with it. He would not part with the katana that Naruto made for him for anything, let a lone a katana of a lesser scale, and the mask would just obstruct his vision.

His skills had grown immensely in the past years with the constant training with his old team and all his sensei and the training that Tenpi, Tsuki, and Tomoe -as they liked to be called in their mortal disguises- put him through. He had even mastered the final stage of the Sharingan, the Sakashima Sharingan or the Reverse Sharingan, that he had unlocked during the first Chunnin Exam he had taken. The Sakashima Sharingan was almost the exact same as the Mangekyou Sharingan, however, unlike the Mangekyou Sharingan that allowed the user to use Tsukiyomi and Amaterasu's abilities, the Sakashima Sharingan lets the user use those abilities plus Susanoo's as well. The Sakashima Sharingan also gave its user slight clairvoyant visions of the future. Something which Sasuke was not to good at controlling, for his visions were usually not far in the future when he got them while he was awake or when they were in his dreams, they make no sense at all from what he could remember of them.

It was no wonder that Sasuke became an ANBU at the age of fifteen. It was not just given to him like many had first thought, being the prodigy of the Uchiha clan and the student of the Yondaime. He had gained his position by hard work and determination. It also helped that he had a motivating drive that his older murderous brother was after the his first crush and Soul Mate. Something that he had found very shocking himself when he had been first told of the fact that they were Soul Mates. It did take sometime to get his head around the fact, but after he did, he started to like the idea. He did know that he still had to properly court Naruto even if they were Soul Mates, but it meant that he had a better chance with the blond than anyone else since they were Soul Mates. He only had to worry about the blond's family now, for they were sure to kill him if he messed up with the boy -now young man.

Pulling his eyes back down from the twinkling heavens to the mortal world below, the Uchiha watched as his teammates cleaned their wounds or went to sleep in Juugo's case. However, it did not take long for Karin and Suigetsu to follow their comrade into the blissfulness of sleep themselves, leaving the Uchiha as the only one left awake. Seeing this, Sasuke spread his chakra out around their makeshift campgrounds as a precaution and sent a little electricity through his chakra. This would cause any person, other than his team, to be paralyzed from an electric shock if the set foot in the area his chakra covered. It would not, however, cause any harm to any living animals in the vicinity, the deity of the forest would not appreciate it if any of the animals were harmed.

Nothing happened for the next few hours of his watch and finally, around midnight, he relinquished his watch to Suigetsu. Once he was sure that the swordsman was fully awake and alert, the raven finally let sleep take over him to some degree. Nevertheless, he did not fully succumb to sleep. He never did on missions and even when he was at his own home, he could not get a restful night of sleep, not since Naruto had left Konoha five years ago.

* * *

It took three weeks for the _Gods of the Night_ to get back to Konohagakure, but they made it in good time considering that it was regularly a two month journey for anyone else. Konoha had changed greatly in the five years that the Uzumaki siblings had been gone. Unlike other nations that had gone to war with bordering nations or had civil wars break out, Konoha had done the exact opposite. While other nations were on the verge of failing or being destroyed, the Land of Fire and her allies were prospering in these hard times. With all the refugees coming into the Lands of Fire, Wind, and Wave, their population grew rapidly of both shinobi and civilians alike.

The three allied Lands worked together with one another, making sure that not only were shinobi villages prospering, but the regular citizen as well. To accommodate the rapid growth in the populate, new construction and expansion in various cities around the three Lands were mandated. Need for architects and construction increased, supplying jobs for the incoming immigrants and those that needed jobs. The demand for food, clothing, and other such essential items escaladed as well, thus surrendering more job openings for civilians. It was with all the immigration and being in the times of border lining war that the demand for shinobi skyrocketed. Heavier security was put around all the major cities of the three allied Lands as well as their Hidden Shinobi Villages while other towns and cities requested missions from their respective Hidden Villages and sometimes one of their allies Hidden Villages as well. Every immigrant had to go through numerous checkpoints as a precaution to keep enemies and any with ill intentions out of their Lands.

It did not mean that the three allied Lands were not suffering in their own way however. They all still had there share -if not more- of deaths on missions from stray rogue shinobi on the loose to ambushes on missions and captured shinobi. One of the main problems, mainly in the Land of Fire's, were the many frequent attacks on their borders from either cocky new villages or a groups of misfits that thought they could take down the might Leaf Village. None of the other, older, shinobi villages had attacked Fire Country's borders yet. However, as of lately, there had been signs of Kumogakure and Iwagakure joining forces and attacking the Leaf. Konoha's ninjas could deal with small, uncoordinated attacks, yet the Yondiame knew that they could not deal with two superpower nations organized attacks on them, even with the help of Sunagakure's ninjas. There were also the rumors going around that Otogakure and its Otokage, the infamous Uchiha Itachi, were on the verge of something big. This _something_ was not known to anyone outside of Oto and even then, it was only the higher ranked officials of Otogakure.

Looking around the Hidden Village of the Leaf, none of this seemed to be affecting the villagers everyday lives, save for the new construction and other small things, life inside of Konohagakure was the same. No, outside worries affective the civilians of the village. Yet there was always at least one chunnin or higher classed shinobi in every district and those that were closer to the walls of Konoha had either two jounin or an ANBU walking about. Sometimes they were obvious to even the villagers, wearing their regular uniforms, and other times -as a shinobi is trained to do- they would blend themselves into the mass, making them just another face in a crowd.

The ANBU Team Hebi headed for the first place any normal ANBU would go to as soon as they stepped through the gates of Konohagakure. The Hokage tower. And all the way there, Sasuke had to listen to the grumbling and groaning of Karin. The teenage girl hated visiting the Hokage and it was not because that she dislike him or anything like that. No, it was because she hated his _pets_. Thankfully, the Uchiha knew better to call them _pets_ like his teammate did. They were companions more than pets and they were not wild animals like Karin always muttered about. They were the spirit foxes that formerly belonged to the two fox dieties; Dei, Reimei, Yuuyami, and Yabun. After the Inaris left the world of the living, the foxes stuck to Arashi and were always with him, much to Karin's displeasure.

That was not the only thing that the Inaris had left Arashi thought. Since they died giving their life for Arashi's, he had gain some of their qualities, but to what extent was undetermined at the moment. The Yondaime now had the ability to communicate with canines, more specifically, foxes. His five senses had been increased drastically and he held some -being _very _little- of the knowledge that once belonged to the deities that saved him. His physical appearance had not changed, but that was the problem, it had _not_ changed in the last five years. He looked like he did the day he _died_, maybe just a _little _older, but not much. Tsunade did a diagnosis on him and could not find anything physically wrong with him, save that his healing abilities were now astounding and what would normally kill any other shinobi would only put him in the hospital bed for a month or so.

Upon entering the Hokage Tower, the small group stayed in the shadows as to not be seen by any of the lesser shinobi and make their way to the Hokage's office without being stopped by any nosy busybodies. It was because of this that when they entered the Hokage's office the Hokage almost killed Sasuke with a kunai. He was not the Hokage for nothing after all and those that would try and sneak into his office had another thing coming if they thought it was going to be a simple task. Luckily, the Uchiha was well used to this kind of thing happening and easily caught the flung kunai as if he was plucking a falling leaf out of the air.

"Hokage-sama," the ANBU Team Hebi greeted the blond man that was seated at his desk casually. The usual stacks of paperwork were seen stack up on both sides of his desk, framing the blond's appearance nicely. At the foot of the desk, curled up into tight balls sleeping were the four white foxes, while at least they were asleep until the ANBU team entered the room. Immediately the spirit foxes awoke and perked up, after each giving their own canine yawn.

"Sasuke, Juugo, Suigetsu, Karin," the Yondaime greeted giving a nod to each of them as he said their names as a form of acknowledgement. "Coming to report I presume?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama," Sasuke replied, bowing slightly as his team followed his example. Standing up straight again, the ANBU captain of Team Hebi gave a briefing of what his team had been up to for the last few months. His teammates also gave their own viewpoints on the mission and what they had witnessed. Most of what they all had to say was the latest news of what villages had been eliminated by other villages that felt threatened by them or those that they had saved. There was also the information regarding the new alliances that other villages had been formed. Nevertheless, they did have some tidbits of information that they had gathered about the Otokage, and his subordinates, i.e. Orochimaru.

"So, the Village Hidden in the Trees has been completely annihilated by the Village Hidden in the Mist for not explainable reason?" the Yondaime asked calmly, even though he had just found out that one of Konohagakure's few smaller allies had been wiped out. He had to be, it was what was expected of the Hokage after all. An affirmative nod was all he got for an answer, but that was all that was need. It was then that the former sensei and student's eyes meet and a silent conversation went on between the two before they broke eye contact when the Yondaime looked at the three other members of Team Hebi.

"Alright, you four are dismissed, go collect your pay for the mission and while your at it, why don't you stop by the hospital for a check up?" the Hokage stated making a slight gesture with his hand, yet it got his point across. The last part was not a question, but rather an order. Nodding their heads, the four filed out of the office, but before the Uchiha could leave, the blond's voice came floated to his ears, calling him back. Once the other left and the door was firmly shut, leaving the two of them alone, did anyone make a move. The first to actually make a move was Reimei , who had waited patiently for the others to leave before trotting over to the Uchiha and rubbing up against him looking for affection. Kneeling down next to the vixen, Sasuke allow himself a rare moment to opening up and petted the fox before her brothers and sister came trotted over to him as well, wanting his attention as well.

"Sasuke," the blond called, his voice sounding different than just a few minutes ago. It sound less like someone that was strong and confident Hokage and more like an unsure and hesitant peasant. It sounded less like a leader's voice and more like a normal parent's voice would have when they were regarding their child. It was this voice that Sasuke had grown to anticipate when he returned from long missions like the one he had just been on.

Giving Yuuyami one last pat on the head, Sasuke stood up and looked into the unique blue eyes that only belonged to two people in existence that begged him. Begged him for something that he did not have and wanted just as badly as the other man did. Resisting the urge to yell out his frustrations to the world, the Uchiha simple choice to shake his head negatively and answer his old sensei's unspoken question.

"There was no signs of him," the raven stated, truthfully. Brokenly. "No sightings, no rumors, no nothing. It's so frustrating, and I know that it is a good thing that we cannot find anything about him. Because that means that the _Destroyer_-" the word was spit out in loathing "-can't find him either. However, it does not stop me from wanting to find him."

"I know, oh Kami-sama I know!" whispered Arashi wistfully. "I lived for twelve long and when I finally find out that he is alive and had been right under my nose all this time, it is only for him to disappear again. I cannot help but want him back again. I just wish to have him back safe and sound, but that's not going to happen anytime soon. Not with the threat of the Destroyer and Otogakure still out there. He would not put us in danger like that, but I just want him back."

"_Don't worry, Chibi-chan will come back. He wouldn't leave us alone like that,"_ Dei purred out to reassure the two humans, which it did. The two had more of a relaxed look on their faces and their muscles were not quite as tense as they had been before hand.

"_The only way that he would not return would be if something happened to him that would make it physically impossible for him to come back here," _Yabun stated, destroying all of the reassurance that Dei had created with her words. Horrid images came to both of their minds on what could cause Naruto to never come back and none were too pleasant either for they both feared for the worse. Their bodies were once again tense with worry and fear and their eyes held a look in them that resembled terror.

"_Thankfully, he has Chibi Kitsune and his brothers with him to keep him safe from any harm," _Reimei yelped out quickly to cover up the mistake her brother made. _"Nothing bad will come to him and Chibi Kitsune at all if those two had their say in anything."_

"_Hell, if those two had their way, no one would be allowed to be within five feet of the him and everyone else would be dead,"_ Yuuyami growled out, covering up for Yabun as well. Even though the exaggeration was a little extreme, Sasuke and Arashi became at ease once again. Yuuyami spoke the truth and they both knew it, yet that did not mean that they did not want him back in Konohagakure with them. It would be only then that they could rest, knowing where he was and how he was fairing at all times.

"_Do not forget that Chibi-chan is just as capable as his brothers are and can take care of himself as well," _Reimei reminded them. _"He is not a porcelain doll and shouldn't be treated like one. He is a shinobi of Konoha, the Lord of Foxes, a Tenshi, and a Pure One, but most importantly, he is still Naruto and can take care of himself. He's not a baby anymore and will be in his seventeenth winter soon."_

The room became still, knowing that the vixen was correct in what she had to say. They were still worrying about Naruto like he was some incapable civilian and not a trained shinobi of the Leaf Village. He had trained and traveled with some of the most unique beings live and lived through countless near death experiences. He had been hunted from the day he was born and had kept himself alive without their help for more than a decade. Just because they had meet him and found out what he was really was not going to change him in anyway. Naruto would still be himself and do just as he had done to stay alive, them treating him like a doll and worrying about his every move was not going to solve anything. They just had to trust in Naruto and his brothers.

"You're right, all of you," Arashi agreed with the four foxes and what each of them had to say. "We just have to believe in Naruto and his brothers and they will come back. They always will. Thank you."

The foxes each gave a purr of acknowledgement and a pat on the head as their thanks from the Hokage and the Uchiha. After they had settled that matter, the two humans and four canines just conversed with one another for a while. Nothing was really said, they just talked about whatever came to their mind first. It was one of those conversations that the people had to be really close to understand what was going on. Something that was therapeutically and relaxing for the both of them.

After they had finished their catching up and slight relaxation, Sasuke departed to pick up his pay and stop by the hospital like Arashi had recommended him to do. Picking up his pay was slower than he would have liked, because there were a lot of people that had recently gotten back from missions and all of them just wanted to get their pay and go. Once his pay was in hand, the Uchiha headed straight to the hospital to get his check up over with before finally going home. He was lucky that when he got to the hospital, instead of waiting, his teammates had given notice to the doctor that he would be in and a room was ready for him. It also helped that he and his doctor were on very close terms.

It was also because he was on good terms with the doctor that he did not have to change in to the stupid hospital gown like other ninjas had to. He was allowed to wait in a comfortable room, in his ANBU gear, and did not have to worry about waiting in the waiting room with the crying children and sickly adults. Plus, he did not have to wait long for the testing results either.

"I see that you have been good health since your last checkup," the doctor said walking in the room with the results of his checkup in hand and eyes on reading over what they had to tell. Not once did either of the two make eye contact with each other as the results were read over and analyzed thoroughly. Finally, when the doctor was satisfied that everything was in order and there was nothing wrong with him, the clipboard was set aside and their eyes finally meet. "Did you-?"

Sasuke cut her off with an answer before she could even complete the thought, hanging his low while he spoke. "No, there was nothing to be heard of their whereabouts. Gomen nasai."

"Why are you apologizing? It's not like it is your fault," the soft, bell like voice of his doctor and friend tried to reassure him. "Gaara-kun and Haku-san were the ones that decided to follow after Naru-chan and Kyuubi-kun. If anything, I should be the one apologizing to you. I was the one that helped Gaara-kun and Haku-san out of the hospital to go after Naru-chan and if I didn't, you wouldn't feel so guilty. I know you feel guilty for not being about to save Naru-chan from the Destroyer and in turn, feeling like it was your fault that they all left, but it is not your fault Sasuke. It is not your fault."

"I know Hinata, I know. It's just that I cannot help but blame myself for it," Sasuke replied, lifting his head up to look back in the Hyuuga's white eyes that always had a dash of violet to them. Seeing the girl, now young woman, again after four months, the raven had the time to take in all the new changes. It seemed to him that she had grown a few centimeters taller and her hair grew a little longer, now going passed her shouldered, but other than that she was the same young doctor. Her skin was pale as ever and her figure as slim and fit like a civilian should have looked like, all baby fat long gone. Her face was a little round and curvy, just like the rest of her body, yet there were slight wrinkles in her skin from constantly worrying about her Soul Mate for the last five years.

Those that did not know better would have assumed that the Hyuuga Heiress was nothing but a doctor and a diplomat at first sight. She did not look the type of a trained killer, but they could not be anymore wrong. During the years of the Uzumaki siblings disappearance, her Soul Mate's obaa-chan took over her training. The woman saying something that she needed to get to know her future granddaughter better and make sure she could put Gaara in his place. Tsunade had not only trained her in said art of putting her Soul Mate in his place, but also in the art of medicine and trained her to be a med-nin. What scared many now days, was the fact that Hinata had her family's kekkei genkai, her own improved version of the Gentle Fist taijutsu style, and medical knowledge of the human body, plus the bone crushing strength that the Legendary Slug Sannin possessed. With all that combined, she was not somebody you wanted to get on their bad side.

"And if Naru-chan heard that you blamed yourself for it? What would he think about that?" Hinata asked, rhetorically. "He's not weak you know and blaming yourself for not being able to save him is making it sound like he is the damsel in distress. He is stronger than anyone gives him credit for and I know for a fact that he definitely does not want to be the damsel in distress. He is doing this to save us, instead of having others save him. He is doing this so that he doesn't lose anymore of his precious people, he lost so many already and he doesn't want to lose anymore."

"I feel like I just had this same conversation only a little while ago…only this time it's not a couple of foxes doing the convincing and it is only me that has to be convinced," the raven murmured under his breathe.

Too bad for the raven, Hinata -having unnaturally higher senses because of the bond she held with Ichibi no Tanuki's vessel- heard him. "Then you should have listen to the foxes, instead of having me waste my time explaining it all to you again," the usually softly spoken Hyuuga Heiress scolded the Uchiha Heir.

"Hn, so I'm a waste of your time now, am I?" Sasuke asked, trying to hide the smirk, knowing that irritated the woman even more. It worked too.

"Wh-why yo-you!" Hinata stumbled over her words, fighting back the rage that had built up upon seeing the hidden smirk. "UCHIHA SASUKE! Get Your Ass Out Of My Sight Before I Have You Speaking Two To Three Pitches Higher Than You Usually Would _Permanently_!"

Knowing that it was not wise to anger the Hyuuga anymore, and for fear of losing what made in a man, Sasuke quickly disappeared out of room.

* * *

Reappearing with in the crowed streets below the hospital, Sasuke thought it best to walk about for a little while to clear his mind. He had nothing else better to do and he would not be getting any more missions for a few days, so there was no worry there. With no where in mind, the youngest Uchiha let his feet take him around the village while he let his mind wander about as well.

At first, Sasuke noticed all the new faces in the crowd, categorizing what nations they had come from by looks alone and their skills by the way they held themselves, but as he walked on, the people around him became just a blur. He let the noises of the crowd take over and bask in the knowledge that he was in his home village yet again. He did not have to keep his guard up and could finally let his tension filled shoulder slouch a bit. It was good to be home again and to let his mind wander about, remembering all that had happened.

In the time that had passed since the Uzumaki siblings disappearance everyone had changed to some degree. Gai's Team and the Rookie 9 without Naruto had became known as the Konoha 11 of the new generation of shinobi. There was a lot expected of them, but that was because they all had their own potential. It was good to know that all of the Konoha 11 were exceeding all expectations, proving to the nonbelievers what they were capable of while making all their teachers proud of them. They were all making a name for themselves in one way or another.

Hyuuga Hinata was a med-nin just below Tsunade's skills and the next inline for the Head of the Hyuuga family with full backing from both sides of the family. She had demolished the laws that called for the Caged Bird Seal places on the branch members of the family and had united the two separate houses into one with no augments from either side. It was because of this, she also became an ambassador of Konohagakure when she was required. There was even a spot on the Council for her if she was willing to take it -the conniving bastards already in the Council thought they could use her as a tool. They were sadly mistaken and found out it the hard way to never cross a Hyuuga Heiress- but she had declined _respectfully_.

Nara Shikamaru had also been offered a place on the Council, but it was too troublesome to him. Instead, he was working with the security and special tactics of Konohagakure. Actually, it was more like he was the commander of the small division, seeing that it was almost made completely by him. The only person he had to report to and clear things with was the Hokage himself, the Council had no control of him, much to their displeasure. At one point they had even tried to get one of their own ROOT ANBU into his division to report back to them. It, sadly for them, failed miserably.

Akimichi Chouji was Shikamaru's right hand man while working in SEED as they had so affectionately dubbed their division. What Shikamaru could not do, Chouji could. While Shikamaru was using his IQ of two hundred to plan things out, Chouji was setting it in motion. While Shikamaru was briefing the Hokage of the tactics and security SEED had planned, Chouji was briefing the troops of their individual jobs for the missions. The two worked perfectly together, the brains and the bronze, best friends working in sync with one another. However, it would not be the Ino-Shika-Cho Team recreated if Ino was not apart of the SEED division and thankfully, she was.

Yamanka Ino was the _motivation_ of SEED. She made sure that Shikamaru did not laze about cloud gazing all the time, neither did she let Chouji eat all the time while lazing about with his best friend. Ino made sure that the information gathered was the real deal and not some bogus piece of garbage before Shikamaru could plan things out and Chouji could put them in motion. Ino made sure that the missions were running smoothly and effectively while Shikamaru was off briefing the Hokage and Chouji briefing the troops. She also was SEED's own personal interrogator and sometimes worked with Ibiki's new lead interrogator in her spare time. The young woman was also Chouji's long time girlfriend.

Aburame Shino and Inuzuka Kiba, along with Akamaru, were at the top of their field in recon work. The three worked together perfectly and only worked with together in a group or not at all. Shino was the best at getting a geographic layout of the areas and mapping it with the help of his bugs. Once he got all the information he needed, he would then begin to make a map out the layout being precise as possible. Kiba and Akamaru were better at tracking and following any person or being given that they had their scent. Together they were the best jounin reconnaissance team out there and the only reason they were not in the ANBU yet, was because they had not found the time to take the test.

Takahashi Tenten had taken over her family weaponry business and took great pleasure in the fact that she could wield all the weapons her family sold with deadly skill. She also took pleasure in the fact knowing that all the weapons she used were made by her and she did not have to worry about there being flaws in the metal. Even though many came and bought weapons from the Takahashi business, that was not Tenten's main priority. The weapons mistress's main priority these days were her ANBU duties and left her family business in the care of a well trusted employee. She had been Anko's apprentice before the snake mistress was declared KIA -though she did not go down without a fight and took two of Sound's most valuable shinobi with her- and Tenten had filled her late sensei's place.

There was no surprise when Rock Lee took his sensei's title of the Green Beast of Konoha and became a taijutsu master. He had proved to everyone that a shinobi who could not do ninjutsu and genjutsu was just as effective ninja as the rest of them. He had been able to fulfill his dream and went even further by becoming an ANBU. He also fulfilled another dream of his when he proposed to his long time girlfriend the year before and Sakura accepted his youthful proposal. The two had not gotten married yet, because Sakura wanted to wait until everyone could attend her wedding, more specifically, Naruto since he was the one that got the two together in the first place, and Lee agreed with her.

As for Haruno Sakura, fiancée to Rock Lee, she too became an ANBU member like her raven haired teammate. However, her area of expertise was in a whole different area. At first the pink haired kunoichi had wanted to be a med-nin and had gotten some training from Rin, Shizune, and Tsunade, but her temper and super strength had caught Ibiki's attention and he had taken her under his wing. It was from there that she gotten to her position of lead interrogator of the ANBU Black Opts. Her favorite think in the world was working besides her best friend, Ino, because the two earned the nickname _Blessed Nightmares_. Ino torturing them mentally while Sakura mete out the physical agony, her knowledge of the human body let her generate more anguish while keeping the prisoner alive longer.

Hyuuga Neji had stunned his clan by becoming a hunter nin for the ANBU. His Byakugan made him the ideal hunter shinobi, allowing him to see far off distances and the surrounding areas at the same time. He could even spy on his targets without having to be in the same room as them. Most all of his missions were solo mission, but with the team missions, the Hyuuga was more than not paired up with his old teammates. Neji also surprised countless others by becoming an ambassador of Konohagakure along with his cousin, the two working together flawlessly.

Then there was the matter of Sabaku sibling. After the unsuccessful invasion Sunagakure had been apart in and the countless lives lost, plus the revelation that their Yondaime Kazekage was dead, the Village Hidden in the Sand went into chaos. A civil war had threaten to break out at one point, but Temari and Kakuro had been able to stop it with their presence alone. Being the older of the two and more experienced, Temari had taken matters into her own hands and, with a lot help and backing from her brother, she was able to restore Sunagakure's place as one of the five great shinobi nations. She did not become the Godaime Kazekage for nothing after all and with her brother right at her side, they were able to turn Sunagakure around and headed it in the right direction with the help of their ally, Konohagakure.

All of the new generation had became stronger and started to take their rightful place in the society, but that did not mean that the older generation was gone. No, far from it. The ones that were alive were still around pulling their own weight and showing everyone that they were still a force to be wrecking with. Hatake Kakashi and Hatake Zabuza had joined SEED in order to protect Konoha. Umino Iruka had continued on with his job as a Academy teacher and sometimes had Kakashi's help when he was not on a mission -though he was not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Rin and Shizune were working in the hospital under Tsunade's command and Jiraiya -when he was not up to his pervert tricks or hospitalized- was one of Konoha's top spies. Uchiha Obito had decided to stay where he was and became the Yondaime's personal assistant to some degree.

The Sandaime finally passed on, leaving behind a very distraught grandson and a grieving Sarutobi Asuma. Konohamaru had been left alone again, but being his uncle, Asuma had taken the boy in to live with him. Sadly, not even three months later, Asuma was killed saving a group of orphans traveling into Fire Country, leaving Konohamaru and his newly wedded wife, Yuuhi -now Sarutobi- Kurenai alone in the world. It was even worse on Kurenai when she found out she was pregnant not too long later. Now, Kurenai was an Academy teacher along with Iruka and was taking care of both her two year old son, Sano, and Konohamaru. However, Konohamaru had become a genin recently and Kurenai did not have to worry about him that much anymore. The third's grandson and the rest of the Konohamaru Corps were now the responsibility of the elder Green Beast of Konohagakure, Maito Gai.

A lot had sure changed in the pasted five years, Sasuke knew that, he just wished he knew about the Uzumaki siblings. Had they changed? If so, how much? Would they still be the same person they were when they last had met? Or would they be different? How different would they be? What had they seen these last five years? Had they been involved in any of the small wars that had broken out? There were so many different questions running through Sasuke's head that he wanted answers too, but there was no one giving him the answers he sought out.

Sighing, Sasuke pulled himself out of his thoughts and refocused on the world around him. He was not even surprised to find himself out of Konohagakure's gates and standing in front of an old ruined down house. He had done things like this often enough, wandering about with no destination in mind, but for some reason or another, he always wound up here. The Uzumaki Household. The small house that Uzumaki Hoshi had first found Naruto and Kyuubi in, the home that the Uzumaki siblings and Kyuubi lived in by themselves for two years, the residence where memories during the Chunnin Exam party, and the area that was now abandoned and ruined because of the greed of one man, Uchiha Itachi.

After the Uzumaki siblings and Kyuubi left, Tsunade, Shizune, and Zabuza continued to live there, so that when -not if- they returned there would be a sense of familiarity and belonging. They had not wanted to leave and no one really wanted to make them. However, an ill organized attack on Konoha by a bunch of rogues had resulted in a forest fire three years ago. The fire had wiped-out a good percentage of the foliage and wildlife while taking days to contain and weeks to put the whole fire out. In the end, the Uzumaki Household was devoured by flames and all that was left were the charred outer walls of once homely house. Thankfully, at the time, the current residents were inside the walls of Konoha and the only think lost was the small house itself. Now the three residents of the Uzumaki Household lived peacefully in the Uchiha district.

"Well, since I am here," Sasuke murmured to himself as he sat down at the base of a tree and let the serenity around him lure him into a light sleep.

* * *

When Sasuke woke up, it was to the sound of a wolf howling in the distance and the moon was shinning light on the darkened land. The stars were just coming out, signaling that it was not very far into the night and the raven had not been asleep for more than four or five hours. It was the time that the shinobi with high ranked missions would leave. It was the time that he should be getting back to the Uchiha district. Standing up, the Uchiha stretched out his stiff and cramped muscles before heading off back into Konohagakure and towards the Uchiha district.

After being stopped by the guards on duty and getting back inside of his home village, Sasuke had ever intention of going straight to the Uchiha Manor. Nonetheless, seeing how late it was and feeling his stomach complain, the raven thought it best to stop off and pick something up to eat. After stopping at the barbeque restaurant that Chouji liked so much, the raven started for the Uchiha district yet again. This time there was nothing stopping him from getting home, though his stomach was still complaining and to appease his stomach, he ate his dinner along the way. He was finished eating by the time he got to the Uchiha Manor and seeing that there was no chakra signatures inside the house, Sasuke headed straight towards the kitchen.

He had just gotten done setting out the rest of the food he bought when his cousin had gotten walked in the kitchen. Truthfully, it was more like his cousin pounced on him as he was turning around to grab something out of the cupboard. He had almost fell over because of the unexpected added weight to his back and he did not have the time to brace himself. He was fortunate enough to catch his balance at the last second though.

"Sasuke! You're back!" Obito screamed in his ear, causing the other Uchiha to wince at the volume. "Cuz, I've missed you so much."

"_Obito_, get off me," the raven haired growled out. The weight on his back disappeared and Obito came into his line of vision.

In the five years that past, the older Uchiha had not changed much. His skin seemed a little more pale, from not being out during the day that often and taking only night missions. His raven hair was as wild as ever, but he had grown it out to so he could pull it back into a spiky horsetail. Regrettably, in Obito's opinion, Sasuke was now taller but only by a few inches. He had changed his outfit to the regulated ANBU outfit, yet he did not wear the white armor or black sleeves. Instead, he wore a black jacket lined in orange over the sleeveless black turtleneck shirt and he continued to wear his orange goggles. Other than that the older Uchiha had not aged.

"So where did you pick this up from?" Obito asked, sitting down at one of the places that Sasuke had just set and started helping himself. He completely missed the glare sent his way by his cousin as he continued to pile his plate up full of food. It was not Obito's fault he had not had a descent meal in a while. As hungry as he was, the older Uchiha had even started to scarf down his food by the time Sasuke had sat across from him at the table.

"And what makes you think I picked up the food? Why don't you think I made it?" the raven asked, upset at the way the other worded his question.

Obito looked up, in the middle of eating a rib with a blank look on his face. He blinked a few times before swallowing what was in his mouth before he burst out laughing. "You? Cook? Yeah right!" Obito laughed out, tears forming in the side of his eyes from him laughing so much. He almost fell out of his chair laughing when a kunai came dangerously close to cutting his face. It actually cut a strained of his hair, but nothing more. Looking up, the goggle wearing man was met with the Sakashima Sharingan spinning wildly in front of him, a harsh glare on the enraged Uchiha's face. "Hey! Don't look at me like that! I'm only telling the truth, you can't cook for shit. Remember the last time you tried? I don't think I have to remind you of that whole little incident last year? Or how about the year before that?"

"All right, I get it, I can't cook," Sasuke growled out, deactivating his sharingan. "I got the food from the barbeque place, you know the one Chouji likes so much?"

Nodding his head, Obito continued eating his food. "Aw, I know that place, no wonder the ribs are so good, they're the best in the village." Gulping down another piece of meat, he gnawing at the rib bone in order to make sure he got every piece of meat off of it. "I didn't hear any new rumors about the _Gods of the Night _in the last for months. So, how'd the mission go? Your team still arguing or are they getting along now days?"

"Nothing too abnormal for a S-ranked mission, but it still had its moments," the ANBU captain replied. He was about to say more, but the door banged open and voices filled the room. Judging by the voices and the number of new chakra signatures, there were about two of them. It was obvious who the two new people were by the way they were talking, more like bickering with each other. The Hatake brothers.

"I'll ask you again, why the hell are you following me?" Zabuza's rough voice barked out at his brother obviously.

"Because, I don't trust you alone with my teammate," Kakashi's angry voice answered.

"Ex," the Demon's voice said with a hint of amusement could be heard, "ex-teammate and what's there not to trust?"

"Oh, I don't know, how about the fact that you tried to molest him in the middle of the streets last week." Sitting in the kitchen, Sasuke looked over at his cousin with a raised eyebrow and watched as the other Uchiha blushed bright red and looked away. The raven was just thankful that his cousin was not eating at the time or else he might have been chocking to death at the moment. A smug looked crossed the Uchiha's face and a smirk appeared. The bickering in the background caught their attention again and it almost seemed like the two brothers did not realized that there were others in the house.

"Oi," the ANBU captain finally called out, leaning back in his chair and looking through the open door to see the brothers. "You know we are here, right? And we can hear everything you're saying?"

In the years that had gone by, the two brothers had not changed at all. A little older, a little wiser, but they would never stop arguing with each other. Yes they had grown order, but they did not look it. They looked the exact same as they did five years ago. Okay, they did not look exactly the same, they had changed their style of clothing, but that was it. Kakashi style had stayed almost the exactly same, he wore his black pants and chunnin vest, however, he now wore a long sleeved black shirt. His headband still covered his sharingan eye and he still wore a face mask, but at times, one could fine him without his face mask on and that was when he was with Iruka. As for Zabuza, his style changed the most, he wore black pants as well, but he wore a white sleeveless shirt and a black chunnin vest. His man cleaving sword was strapped to his back and his headband was tilted sideways on his head. Unlike Kakashi, Zabuza totally lost his bandage mask and let his whole face be seen. It frightened people more that way.

"Sasuke, your back? And is that barbeque I smell?" Zabuza asked, a smile on his face, waltzing into the kitchen and taking a seat. He would have sat next to Obito, but Kakashi sat down in the seat he wanted before he could even get there, making him have to sit next to Sasuke with a well placed glare aimed at his brother. The two then started to fill up their plates of food, fighting over who got what, and glaring at each other the whole time. "Kill anybody I should know about on the mission?"

"Just some random shinobi from Iwa, a few from Kumo, and every Oto nin I came a crossed, nothing special," the Uchiha waved him off. "Now what is this about you molesting my cousin in the middle of the streets?"

"Well it is like this," the Demon started in a serious tone, "I was on my way to the market place, when I saw Obito walking all alone and I decided to join him. But before I could, I saw this one woman eyeing him like a piece of meat and me, being the kind and caring person I am, thought that I would save him from being molested by a total stranger."

During the whole conversation, Obito had been blushing harder and harder until he looked like a giant juicy tomato. It did not help any at his cousin's next words that were stated rather bluntly. "So you decided to molest him instead?"

"Yea, that's about right," Zabuza said while nodding his head affirmatively, his eyes closed and a thoughtful look on his face. He did not even open his eyes when he lifted a rib up to his mouth and took another bite out of it.

"Oh, how very nice of you Zabuza-_san_." The remark was sarcastic, but Sasuke did not give him time to counter. Instead he turned his attention towards the other Hatake, his eyes firmly fixed on his one visible eye. "So what really happened, Kakashi?"

Smirking underneath his mask, Kakashi was glade to know that his old student had not believed Zabuza's story and turned to him for the answer instead. "It was more like he was stalking Obito before he jump my poor unaware teammate and proceeded to molest in the middle of the streets. However, I must admit there was this one woman looking at Obito with lust filled eyes right before my _dear brother_ jumped him."

"I think I'll take my leave now," Obito mumbled softly, his face a dark shade of red and an embarrassment aura surrounding him, as he sank further into the chair. He was kind of hoping the floor would open up underneath him and swallow him whole, but there was no luck in that happening there. "And -if anyone cares- I think I'll go have a nice stroll off the peek of the Hokage Monument. I hear that if you jump off of the Yondaime's head it is a guarantied death."

"Naw, the trees will break your fall before you can die. Though you will be pretty banged up and bruised badly," Rin gave out her medical input on the situation as she came through the kitchen door. Tsunade and Shizune following right behind her, the trio looking very worn and tired from a hard day's work. "Though what I want to know is why my teammate is contemplating on killing himself, any reasons I should know about?"

Looking at the three women, Sasuke had to smile slightly. Tsunade looked just as she had since his first meeting with her, she had not aged a day it looked like. Everyone thought it was because of a genjutsu that she had concealing her actual age, but she did not have any sort of genjutsu on her, she just let everyone believe it was because of an illusion that she looked so young when in fact in was really because of her being the Chosen One of Philyra. Sure her clothing had changed to an outfit that any normal doctor would have worn, but when she did not have to go work, she wore her old gambling outfit as she called it. She had not changed at all in the last few years, though her tongue had become sharper and her drinking had increased, but that was expected since her grandsons were gone and that was the way she dealt with her worries.

As for Shizune, she had matured into a older woman, even more beautiful than before. Her hair was longer and her eyes told many that she had seem many deaths, but that did not stop any from trying to pursue her. However, her duties as a med-nin always came first and she could never find mister right. She was currently single and happy. Rin was another matter, she was married and happy as well, but she had not changed at all, just like Tsunade. She did look a little older, but she still looked the exact same way as she did when she became one of Sasuke's sensei.

"Just telling Sasuke here about what happened last week in the marketplace streets," Zabuza said carelessly, like it was not that big of deal.

Nodding her head in understanding, Rin turned her attention back on her teammate. "I thought you got over that by now. We all know you like him and he likes you and with the way you flirt with one another. Hell, everyone in the whole country can tell, so just get on with it. Go on a date or have a good rut, by gods you two needed it. Both of you are sexually frustrated and it's starting to effect all of us! A good sexual life has been clinically proven to improve a ninja's physical and mental well being, making them able to complete more missions efficiently. It was just the other day that me and Gai went at it al-."

"Stop!" Obito in the room all but screamed, closing his eyes and covering his ears like a little kid would do when they did not want to hear what the other person was saying. "I don't want to hear it! I don't need the mental image of you and Gai going at it, not again! I don't care if he is your husband or not now, I don't even want to think about it."

Rin, rolled her eyes at her teammate's childish attics, but did not say anymore. Something that the whole room had appreciated greatly. None of them wanted the mental image of Gai and Rin going at it in their minds again, it was just too disturbing, more so for Kakashi and Obito since they saw Rin as a kind of sister now. That and everyone else never -_never_- wanted to hear about what _Gai's_ _sex life _was like. Sure he had to have great stamina, being a taijutsu master and all, but they did not need the details on how many times they had sex that night or what new positions they had tried out.

Seeing an opportunity to change the subject, Tsunade sat down at the table with the other two women doing the same. "I see there is food for us. Who do I have to thank for that?" the Slug Sannin commented as she piled her plate full of food. She had skipped lunch after all, having an important surgery that had not gone as planned and needed a lot more time than she had anticipated.

"Sasuke," Kakashi said, finishing off his dinner.

"Ah, so where did you get it at?" asked Shizune asked, tried to make small talk as she ate her food.

"Why does everybody assume I bought it at some place?" the raven asked, feeling like everyone in the room was against him and his cooking skills

Raising her eyebrow, Tsunade looked at Sasuke with a look that clearly stated that he must have been joking. "Do I have to remind you about the whole cooking incident last year? Or how about the one two years ago?"

* * *

After the unexpected little dinner at the Uchiha Manor was over with, Sasuke made his way upstairs to his room to get in a good night's sleep on his king-size comfy -not to mention soft- bed. As he matured over the years, so had Sasuke's room. No longer were there any kill Itachi signs or pictures of Itachi he used as target practice when bored. Instead he had taken all of it down and covered up the holes in the walls before painting over the room with a dark blue color and replace the old worn grey carpet with a pure white that was well padded. He had all his furniture -bed, desk, chair, dresser, end tables, and bookshelf- replaced with a dark oak set that accommodated for his growth.

Unlike before, when his bedroom was just someplace to sleep in and did not have a sense of someone living in the room, Sasuke's room now had pictures of Team 7 sitting on his desk and various little knickknacks throughout the room. He had changed his sun faded blue curtains for a dark black heavier set as to not allow the sun in during the day so he could see. There was also an new set of black silk sheets on his bed with a black comforter laid out on top for the upcoming changing of seasons. However, the brown rectangular package sitting on top of his bed was out of place.

Quirking his eyebrow slightly, the raven walked over to the package and picked up the small letter lying on top of it. Opening the letter, he quickly scanned the contents and had to restraining himself from smirking evilly. As much as he tried, he could not help but let a small smirk out that would have caused anyone to shiver if they had been there to see it. It was a late birthday present from Kakashi, since he had not been in the village during his birthday and seeing how he had just turned eighteen, his old sensei wanted to get him something special.

Laying the letter down on the end table next to his bed, Sasuke went into his bathroom to take a much needed shower and changed into his night clothing. Once he was finished, the eighteen year old walked back into his room wearing nothing but a midnight blue pair of silk drawstrings sleeping pants. He had already flicked off the light in his room, but he could see perfectly in the dark as he made his way back to his bed and picked up the rectangular package his former sensei left for him before settling himself into bed. After he had gotten himself comfortable situated in bed and turned on his bedside lamp, the raven tore open the brown packaging before smirking evilly again when he saw that his assumptions were correct on what was hidden inside. It was just like any other present Kakashi had ever given him, something he did not need or already had. In this case, a book he had already read when he was fourteen, but this time he was not complaining.

So relaxing back into his comfy soft bed, Sasuke began to reread his new book.

_Icha Icha Paradise._

* * *

Another chapter done, but no Naruto, so sad. Sorry it's taking forever, I lost my muse for this story and it hasn't come back yet. Though I have started another story, it's just a two-shot though and it is SasuNaru. It's called _**To the Snow Dogs**_ if any of you are interested. And thanks for all the review, they do help.

_**Shi no Tenshi 902**_


	27. Mission: Raijin

Sorry that I haven't updated for awhile, I had this chapter finished and was working on the next one because I was so into writing when I got hacked. Or more accurate, I got a virus that erased everything. I was so frustrated! And I had no ambition to write for a long time, but I finally got inspiration. Though, it has been hard since school has started and I'm loaded with class work.

Thanks goes out to all those that reviewed to my last chapter, because those are want wanted my to keep writing. Speical thanks go out to **_LeiseFlustern _**who told me to not stop writing, **_shadowphoenix143_** that told me life happens and other should understand that, **_LaiN_** and**_ KittyBlue_** who both commented on what was good about the story and why they liked it so much. So, for all of them, here is the newest chapter.

* * *

Team Hebi stood in front of the Hokage's desk, the Yondaime briefing them on their newly assigned mission. However, they were not going to be the only ones assigned to the mission. Takahashi Tenten had also been assigned the mission along with Team Hebi. They were going to meet with some man that claimed to have the legendary sword of the Nidaime Hokage, the Raijin, and had agreed to meet the Konoha shinobi in order to arrange an exchange of some kind between them. The prearranged meeting destination was located at the Great Uzumaki Naruto Bridge, of all places. Tenten would be coming along to authenticate the sword to make sure that it really was the Nidaime's sword and not a replica. If the sword was the real deal, Sasuke was instructed to make a trade with the man for the blade within reason. If the sword was not the Raijin, they were told to head back to Konohagakure.

"Remember, if the weapon is the authentic Raijin, make a _sensible _trade with the weapons dealer, understand?" the Yondaime asked sternly, the underlying meaning not lost on the shinobi in the room. They were not to trade their lives in order to obtain the sword. It was not worth it.

"Hai, Hokage-sama," the five ANBU simultaneously responded, without a second thought. It was rare to have a leader that put his subordinates before the mission, but that was what made the Yondaime loved and adored by the people. Some thought that he would be the down fall of Konohagakure, and the rest of Fire Country, with his benevolence and generosity to all those that migrating to Fire Country from villages that they were enemies with. However, with SEED making sure that nobody with ill intentions could get through security, the village was safe. Some people were not willing admit to the fact. "Alright, you are dismissed."

The simple command had all five Konohagakure shinobi disappearing in various ways in order to get ready for their trip to the Land of Wave. Tenten disappeared in the customary poof of smoke, like any other jounin of Konoha would do, while Karin -glaring at the four foxes- used the open window and made her way to the apartment she owned. Suigetsu dissolved into water that seemingly evaporated into thin air and Sasuke just disappeared with no notice. Juugo, giving a short bow to the Hokage to show his respect, used the door and walked out like a regular person would have done.

With a shake of his head, Arashi got back to his paper work, cursing the Council to hell and back all the while.

* * *

Grabbing the last thing she needed for her mission, Tenten quickly changed out of her regular outfit -a yellow Chinese style sleeveless shirt and brown pants with her regular shinobi gear- to her ANBU uniform. Looking in the mirror, the weapons mistress saw her creamy skin tone and her slightly rounded face in the reflection. Her hair was up in buns like she had styled it so along ago -even she could not remember when- and her eyes were as sharp as ever. The tattoo she received when she became an ANBU shown proudly on her bicep while her trimmed figure fit nicely in her ANBU uniform. Noticing that there was nothing out of place, Tenten grabbed her dragon mask before going to meet her temporary teammates at the gates.

Tenten noticed she was the last to reach the gates when she arrived. The members of Team Hebi looked as if they had nothing on them save for the clothes on their backs. Nevertheless, with her well trained eyes, the weapons mistress noticed that all of them carried a storage scroll or two, just like her. She also noticed that other than her and Sasuke, the others were not wearing their ANBU uniforms and none of them had ANBU masks. Orochimaru's old lackeys wore their usually outfits, something that was not uncommon. It was up to the ANBU captain in charge if his or her subordinates had to wear the ANBU standardize uniform and seeing as that none of the others were wearing theirs, Tenten could tell that Sasuke did not care if they wore them or not. However, in her opinion, it was utter disrespectful to the ANBU not to wear the uniform.

Tenten called out to her superior and acquaintance when she was in hearing distance. They were not friends. "Uchiha-san, is this going to be a fast paced mission? Or a mission of a slower paced?" she asked, finishing her question right as she came to stand by Suigetsu. She made sure that there was a good space between her and her other 'teammates' for the mission. The weapons mistress had no feelings of affection towards them and was not able to believe she had been paired up with the scum for an important mission. None of them -in her opinion- could be trusted.

All of Team Hebi had connections to Orochimaru and Tenten could never fathom why the Hokage had let them into Konohagakure. The Yondaime should have never trusted them after almost being killed by the Snake Sannin at her first Chunnin Exams and the destruction caused because of the invasion. Even with all of this, the Hokage had let the _snakes _into their precious village. She knew that the man had a heart of gold and was always willing to give everyone a chance. She understood that and could forgive him.

Nevertheless, Tenten could never allow herself to forgive Uchiha Sasuke. The Uchiha knew better. He should not have brought those _people_ into Konoha, knowing that the Yondaime would give them all another chance at life. He should have known better yet he still brought them to their village. In doing so, he had lost all the respect that Tenten had for him.

Sasuke, who had been leaning up against the wall, pushed himself upright as he turned to the gate and gave a slight acknowledgement to the two chunnin guards standing there. "We don't have to be in Wave for some time, so we don't have to rush there."

"This is supposed to be more of laid back mission," Karin stated nonchalantly, arms crossed over her chest and followed her love interest out of Konohagakure once again. The others in the snake team following her.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that, Karin," Juugo said kindly, looking ahead of him all the while he was talking, "the Raijin is a very sought after blade, not just because it cost a fortune for being the Nidaime Hokage's sword, but also because it is a very powerful and dangerous weapon as well. The sword is said to be made out of pure energy that is retract able. It is told that the energy inside the blade is the chakra of the Nidaime himself and has the ability to give the user some of the chakra form within the sword."

"What good would that do? Why would somebody want the chakra of the Nidaime? There is nothing special about it," Suigetsu scoffed out, not believing that there was anything important about the Raijin. It had no value to it to him, unlike the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist's swords which held his full attention. Those swords were legendary throughout the whole shinobi world and, before now, he had heard nothing about this Raijin.

Tenten scoffed at the arrogance of the naïve little fish. "Humf, I thought a swordsman like yourself would understand how important swords were. That every sword is different and each has their own abilities, but I guess I was wrong about you."

A threatening growl came from the young swordsman, and if it was not for the fact he had a little more self-control than that, then Suigetsu might have actually lunged at the weapons mistress. Instead, he opted to challenge the young lady in a more refine way. He turned the question back around on her.

"And _what_ is there to understand about the _different abilities_ of this sword?" Suigetsu asked calm and maturely, his sharp teeth gleaming in the light.

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes at the other's childish behavior, Tenten answered the little fishy's -as she had now dubbed him- question. "Let me put it in a way that your little mind can comprehend," the weapons mistress stated, ignoring the snickering coming from Karin, though a slight grin to appear on her face. "With the Raijin being able to retract, it is easier to hide, making a shinobi such as yourself look weak and unarmed. It throws enemies off track when the energy blade that the Raijin makes suddenly disappears; giving you enough time to either make your own attack or retreat.

"Now for the part about having the Nidaime's chakra within the sword. It is a well known fact that the Shodai and the Nidaime were brothers, it is not a well known they were only half-brothers. They had the same father, but different mothers, which is why the Shodai had the Mokuton and his younger bother did not, for he inherited it from his mother. However, that don't mean he didn't have a kekkei genkai of his own. No, he had a kekkei genkai, but, unlike others, it wasn't noticeable to many because the bloodline limit was never physical. His kekkei genkai resided in his chakra and its ability to create a link between any living thing. With this link, the Nidaime could use the other's chakra as his own. In essence, he had an unlimited amount of chakra at his disposal. So with the Nidaime's chakra inside of the Raijin, one could virtually connect themselves with anything and have all the chakra they could ever desire. But, that's just a myth and if there was any of the Nidaime's chakra inside the blade, there would only be a limited amount before the chakra runs out."

"An unlimited amount of chakra you say?" Suigetsu said with a sadistic smirk on his face. He did not care that he had lost the argument, she made good points, and he could admit defeat when it was presented to him. It did not mean that he had to take it gracefully. Besides, the swordsman knew just the way to get on her nerves. "Now that's my kind of sword."

"Don't even think about it!" Tenten sneered, seeing the little fishy's face and knowing all about his antics from his ANBU file.

"Don't think about what?" Suigetsu asked, trying to sound innocent and failing miserably.

Taking the bait, the weapon's mistress just glared at the male and growled lightly. "You know what I mean. That sword doesn't belong in the hands of some fish-freak like you, but in its rightful place."

"And where would this rightful place be exactly? A museum? Behind locked door to never be seen? It is a weapon, meant for battle, not as some pretty little decoration. So tell me, Miss Weapon ANBU Mistress, where should this sword be?" Suigetsu growled back venomously. He picked up on the way that the girl clearly showed a distain for him and the others, just like the rest of the ANBU squads did and many of the villagers, yet he never did anything about it. He just messed around and started to be a pain, just to annoy her. Suigetsu took everything in strides and did not let his anger get the best of him. However, the way she was indirectly calling him a murderer, he was not going to stand for that.

Seeing her chance to knock the little fishy down a peg or two, Tenten smirked as she thought of exactly where the sword should go.

"With Tsunade."

It was dead silence. Everyone had stopped walking and was now looking at the back of Sasuke as he continued heading on towards Nami no Kuni. He gave no indication that it was him who had said anything, but they all knew it was him that answered Suigetsu's question, not Tenten. They also had heard the underlying messaged within the tone of his voice. Drop the subject. And they all did. Team Hebi respected Sasuke enough to leave well enough alone when he wanted and Tenten, even though she did not trust Sasuke because he was the brother of a mass murderer, knew when to be quiet in the presence of a superior. She could also feel the killing intent rolling off of Sasuke in waves and that in itself was a good indication when to shut up.

The rest of the day was traveled in silence, none wanting to talk even when the Uchiha's killing intent died down and faded away into nothing. However, when night fell and they were still traveling with no indications of stopping, Tenten finally broke the silence. It was not with any human language or that mimicking an animal; it was a simple clicking of the tongue and a small gesture to the side. A question on when they were going to stop and rest for the night. Her response was less then appeasing for Sasuke just plainly ignored her and continued to walk onwards with Juugo by his side, if not a little faster, and Suigetsu and Karin both gave her a sadistic smirk before ignoring her as well.

Team Hebi were used to this kind of traveling and they were not known as the _Gods of the Night _for nothing. Unlike other ANBU squads, the snake team did not operate in the same mannerisms. The group would only rest when they absolutely had to, not when the sun went down -or came up for that matter- but when they were pushing their limits and were all but dead on their feet. It was how they worked and if Tenten could not handle their way, then she would just be left behind.

The _Gods of the Night_ had not done anything but walking after all, an ANBU should not be tired already. At the pace they were going and with no attacks from enemy shinobi, a well trained jounin should be able to reach Wave without having to stop. Seeing as a jounin could do it and they were ANBU, the elite of the elite, then they could definitely do it with no problems whatsoever.

Nonetheless, just after two in the morning, the five member squad reached a small clearing and hidden among the greenery, a small cozy house rested. Even after all these years, the house was undisturbed by the wars and battles going on around. It looked just as rundown as it did the first time Sasuke laid eyes on it with Arashi and a wounded blond haired angel, but it looked just as homely as well. He should not have found it surprising the house was exactly as it had been; after all, his ancestors probably hid the little house from everyone save him with a little magic. They liked keeping things the way they were for future use and it was because of this the Uchiha decided that the group could rest and spend the night inside the little house.

None questioned him on how he knew that no one was occupying the home, nor how he even knew the house was even there to begin with. They had not seen the dwelling until after the raven had opened the door. Instead, the group followed and went to sleep in nice comfortable beds for a descent night's sleep without question. In the morning, there was even a pot of freshly cooked stew over a small fire that had not been there the night before, ready to be eaten. If not for the fact Sasuke was already eating some and had yet to die of poisoning or anything like that, then the rest of Team Hebi would have thought there someone was stalking and trying to kill them. They themselves, after getting over their initial fear of the food, found the meal to be delicious and filling. Just what their stomachs all needed.

During their whole stay, Tenten had been appalled by the way Team Hebi had made themselves at home in someone else's house. It was blatantly obvious someone still lived there, the house was immaculate and everything was fresh inside. Yet, Sasuke had them all barge inside and make themselves at home when the owner of the house was not about. Team Hebi had even eaten the owner's food. Something that she could not stand, yet Tenten did nothing to stop them. She had slept in the warm bed and eaten the food just as the same; she was just as bad as them.

After a nice night's sleep and a belly full of food, the five headed out once again. The silence was still there but, unlike the other day, it was a peaceful serene silence to them all with the exception of the weapons mistress. There were the resonance sounds of the chirping birds, the buzzing of the insects, the leaves rubbing up against each other in the gentle breeze, and when they were close enough, the sounds of the ocean. The smell of the salty seas was a refreshing fragrance and to hear the roaring of the waves was a sure sign they finally made it to their destination. The Great Uzumaki Naruto Bridge. And they were a few days ahead of time, but that did not mean that there was not anyone waiting for them.

The group had just made their way onto the bridge -a little passed the arch overhead with the title of the bridge- when someone tried to attack Sasuke. It was only on instinct alone, and the fact that he was closest to Sasuke, Juugo was the one to intercept the attack by catching the projectile in his left hand. Yet, it would be wrong to call the thing a projectile and to call the attack an attack, for two reasons. One, the projectile was not a thing but a person, a small boy in his preteens or just reaching there, and secondly, the boy had no intention of harming Sasuke at all, if the sheepish smile on his face on the kid's face had any indication at all.

In all truths, the boy did not look as if he could do much damage hanging with his feet dangling off the ground since Juugo held the kid by the back of his shirt. From the looks of it, the boy was as tall as Sasuke was at his age and with the long black hair pulled up into a high horsetail, dark eyes, and a slightly tanned complexion, he was most likely the center of all the girls' attention. Just like Sasuke had been at his age. That was as far as their similarities went, for the boy, unlike Sasuke, wore brighter colors of clothing. A pair of brown knee length shorts with a matching pair of sandals and a bright green tank top.

The boy held an aura of an amicable person that glowed with innocence. What was strange was the boy held no visible fear for any of them. He just keep on giving Sasuke that sheepish smile and staring at him, the boy never even minded that he was being held above the by the back of his shirt and was totally at their mercy.

Despite his primary reaction to glare at the boy, Sasuke held back, which only cause the preteen to give a very familiar foxy grin and the Uchiha to shake his head. In the short time that he had been here last with his old cell, Naruto had rubbed off on the boy more than he could have every thought possible. The boy just adored the youngest Uzumaki back then, and judging by the bright orange cloth tied around his upper forearm and the Uzumaki crest necklace around his neck, the years had done nothing to deterrent his admiration for the blond haired missing angel. But the same could be said for Sasuke as well.

"It's alright Juugo, he not going to cause any harm. You can put him down," the Uchiha said, taking his eyes off the boy for the first time and looking up at his giant friend who was holding the preteen. Nodding his head, Juugo set the boy down, glade that the raven had said to release the youth. He never liked having to kill, but it was necessary during war and he did not want to kill one so young. When he had first grabbed the boy, Juugo had thought it to be someone a lot older and some type of shinobi or samurai judging by the speed the boy had, yet when he had caught the boy, the tall man found his assumption to be anything but true. The preteen looked to be an ordinary villager in his appearance and body language. The only attribute that was out of place was his quicker than should be speed for an ordinary child.

In the time they had arrived at the bridge, Tenten had taken up glaring at Juugo and Sasuke. Juugo for putting a defenseless citizen in danger and Sasuke for the way he acted. The two had almost killed a child just because he had been at the wrong place at the wrong time. It was not the boy's fault and then Sasuke just had the giant put him down without apologizing for the mishap. It was crude and wrong.

Nevertheless, the biggest surprise came when the boy's feet hit the ground. "Sasuke-niisama! You're back!" the younger raven yelled, hugging the older raven happily.

Disregarding, the dumbfounded looks coming from Suigetsu and Karin, and Tenten looking much worse -like the world had come to an end- the Uchiha raised an eyebrow at his new title. "Sasuke-niisama? Now how did I get that name? And what are you doing on this side of the bridge Inari?"

Looking up at the young man, Inari gave him yet another foxy smile which caused his eyes to close. "Well, you are you, so that makes you Sasuke-niisama," Inari stated rather proudly, the grin never leaving his face.

"Your logic astounds me," the Uchiha stated dryly. "That still doesn't answer what you are doing on this side of the bridge."

"I'm on my daily run, I run to this side of the bridge and back twice a day. Once during the early morning hours and once before dusk falls. However, I'm a bit behind today; I got delayed because Grandpa wanted my help this morning. But I'm not complaining! I got to meet up with Onii-sama," Inari rushed through his words, and it took all of the ninjas a bit to decipher what he had gushed out. "But who are they?" the young raven asked, after catching his breath, and pointing to Juugo and the rest of them.

"Well, this is my ANBU team. Juugo is the one that caught you, the pseudo Zabuza looking guy is Suigetsu, and the redhead is Karin. Then there is Tenten, she's not usually apart of my team, but she's with us now," the Uchiha introduced his teammates and temporary teammate. With each introduction, the introduced person gave some sort of indication that it was them and a nod of greeting.

"Nice to meet you," Inari respectfully greeted the other shinobi, giving a slight bow to each of them. "I'm Inari."

"It is nice to meet you Inari-san," Juugo replied in kind, giving the child a smile, which caused Inari to smile back.

Turning back to Sasuke, the bridge builder's grandson asked the question that had been on his mind. "So, what are you doing here?"

"We're on a mission, but we're a few days early," Sasuke explained, watching out of the corner of his eyes how Inari's face lit up and a devilish smirk covered his face. The Uchiha knew what was coming next.

* * *

Several days later, Sasuke woke up to the sounds of the early morning tide outside and the sizzling of cooking from downstairs. It did not take the raven long to get up and enjoy a nice warm shower. It took even less time for him to put on his ANBU gear and get downstairs where he was greeted by an eternally cheerful Tsunami, who was busy making breakfast for everyone. The woman had aged since his last mission to Nami and she now looked older with a lot more wrinkles and some grey showing in her hair, but she had the same personality since they had last meet. Upon arriving at her home a few days ago, with Inari leading the way, she happily hugged Sasuke and invited them to stay at the house as long as they needed before anyone could utter a word.

This morning, the motherly woman was partly surprised when the Uchiha came down wearing his ANBU gear, since he had worn nothing by commoner's clothing from the day of his arrival. However, she did not think anything of it. A ninja's actions always have a reason behind them. Instead, Tsunami went about making the meal while having an idle chat with Sasuke, however one-sided it seemed at times. Mostly they talked about the changes that had occurred in Wave after the bridge was complete and about the wars going on around the island. There was an unspoken agreement not to say anything too depressing, and Sasuke was very thankful for that or else the topic of one Uzumaki Naruto would have come up.

"So where are you headed off to today?" Tsunami asked, setting a plate of food down in front of Sasuke. She then set another plate for Inari, who was just racing down the stairs ready for the day. But quiet enough since Tazuna was still asleep, seeing as he was getting on in his old age and was not as young as he used to be. Meaning the elder would not be up for another few hours or so.

"Well, later today, my team and I are going to meet up with the weapons dealer as our mission requires," Sasuke replied while the youngest member of the bridge builder's family sat down at the table next him and began to eat. The Uchiha had taken a few bites of his food as well before he continued on. "However, I would like to go and pay my respects to Uzumaki Hoshi early today. In all likelihood, after we meet up with this dealer, my team and I shall head back to Konohagakure."

A topic caused Inari to perk right up and an eager look spread over his face. Looking pleadingly over at his mother, Inari gave the woman one of his best faces in hopes of getting in his mother's good grace that morning. "If it is alright with Onii-sama, can I go with him to Uzumaki-sama's grave, Mom?"

Not looking away from chopping the vegetables, Tsunami answered the preteen. "Only if it is alright with Sasuke-kun and you don't cause him any trouble."

Grinning eagerly, Inari turned back towards the Uchiha, words right on his lips, but the raven beat him to it.

"He's no problem at all Tsunami-san. I'll just send him home once we're finished, by then it should be the time when the dealer will arrive at the bridge," Sasuke stated, finishing his meal and taking it to the sink to be clean out of courtesy. "Would you please tell my team when they wake up to meet at the bridge at the designated time? And other than that, they all have the day off."

"I'll tell them," Tsunami said happily, smiling at the polite, well mannered, sweet young man had. Compared to her son, who was scarfing down his food at the moment, just to finish his meal faster, there was a big contrasting difference. It was only a matter of seconds before he was done and darting out the door. His plate left on the table for his mother to cleaning up and the boy himself calling for his Onii-sama to hurry up. Nonetheless, before he left, the boy had bestowed upon his all too carry mother, a peck on the cheek as his thanks. He was a sweet boy in his own way, Tsunami had to admit and just shook her head slightly as she watch Sasuke head out the door after her boy.

Picking up Inari's plate, the elder woman brought it to the sink before checking to make sure the food was still warm and not burning. Tsunami then went back to the two plates which were already dirty. She had just gotten finished cleaning the two plates, when one of Sasuke's teammates came from downstairs. If she remembered correctly, the woman's name was Tenten. The young lady was very nice and she seemed like a good ninja. However, what brought a frown to Tsunami's face was the way she treated her teammates. The kunoichi almost seemed as if she hated her teammates and despised them.

"Good morning Tsunami-san," Tenten greeted the woman that had kindly let them stay in her house for a few days. She did not understand why the woman was so willing to let criminals inside her house. The weapons mistress was grateful to the motherly woman for housing her but having the other stay, she could have done without.

Then there was the fact that the woman's son totally idolized Sasuke. The child was always calling the ANBU captain 'Onii-sama' or 'Sasuke-niisama' and was almost like his shadow. The boy could not be found more than a few feet away from Sasuke since they had arrived. Something Tenten could not understand why. Why would a small boy look up to a train killer with so much respect? Why would Tsunami-san let her son get close to the Uchiha? Things were not adding up.

"Good morning Tenten-san," Tsunami greeted back, just as politely as the other had, while handing the girl a plate of food. "Sasuke-kun has already left for the day. He told me to tell you to head to the bridge at the right time and other than that, you had the day off."

"Thank you Tsunami-san," the girl uttered gratefully for the food given as well as the relaying of the message. Sitting down at the table, Tenten began to eat her breakfast slowly. Her mind still questioning what she had seen in the last few days. About Sasuke, about Team Hebi, and about how the people interacted with them. Some things were not adding up anymore. Well, not for her anyways. The kunoichi was so deed in thought that she did not realize when Tsunami had sat down across from her. Just goes to show how much this was distracting her and when she looked up, it startled her to see the woman looking at her so intensely. "Tsunami-san?" the weapons mistress asked her questioningly.

"Why do you hate them?" Tsunami asked abruptly. Her gaze staring straight into Tenten's own eyes, never once leaving and intimidating the kunoichi slightly.

A confused looked passed through the girl eyes, not understanding who the other woman was talking about. "Hate who?"

"Your teammates."

"They're not my teammates," Tenten snapped venomously, before she could even think. When her mind caught up with her mouth, the weapons mistress had the decency to blush and mumble a quick apology. Her head bowed in shame for her quick mouth.

Tsunami just smiled at the girl. "See, that proves my point, you have an underlying hate for them. Why?"

Looking the older woman straight in the eyes, the kunoichi searched her eyes. Whatever she had been looking for was found almost instantly and so began her explanation. "They're murderers. All of them. They've been trained to kill ruthlessly under one of Konoha's own nuke-nin, Orochimaru, and yet they are free to do as the wish, roam around killing those in their way. They should be locked up! Better off, they should all be put to death!"

"And why is that?" Tazuna's gruff voice asked as the man slowly made his ways down the stairs. His old bones seeming to creak with each step he took, yet he continued onwards at a steady pace. Once he was at the bottom of the stairs, Tsunami, who had jumped up once she saw her father coming, steadied the man and lead him into the seat she had been sitting in moments ago. The woman then busied herself in making a plate of food for her father, while the old man looked Tenten in the eyes and a stern expression on his face. "Why exactly should they be put to death?"

"Because they are murderers!" Tenten answered back as politely as she could. The old man had butted in on her and Tsunami's conversation and it seemed like he had not been listening to everything. She hated people like that, but since this was his house and he was letting her stay there, she had to be nice. Besides, it was not his fault that he did not know the truth about Team Hebi.

"I heard you say that already," the bridge builder stated, his eyes never leaving hers. Not even when Tsunami put a plate of food down in front of him did the old man break eye contact. "But so are you."

The weapons mistress reeled back in shock, almost as if he had slapped her in the face. To her, it seemed like the man had actually hit her with his comment.

"Wha-?" the kunoichi questioned, but was cut off by Tazuna before she could even begin.

"You're a shinobi, you are trained to kill, be a murderer, yet you call them murderers and see yourself as a saint? That's hypocrisy, if you don't know." The girl opened her mouth to go against what he said, but closed her mouth instantly as the man glared at her for thinking about interrupting him. "You've been trained to kill, it may not have been in the same manor as the rest of the _Gods of the Night _has, but you were trained to kill just like them. Just because they were trained by the Snake Sannin doesn't not mean they liked the man. It doesn't mean they even had a choice for that matter. You were trained by one of his pupils as well," Tazuna continued, recalling what Sasuke had told him about the girl during one of their conversations.

"But that's different!" Tenten tried to counter, her own anger started to boil up at the accusations that she was like _them_. She was nothing, _nothing_, like them and Anko was a whole different matter.

"Don't think you're any better then they are," the man went on, ignoring the girl's outburst, "because you're not. This is a time of war, a time were killing _is_ the only answer. It is a kill or be killed world out there. Wartimes are always different, but people like Sasuke and his team are the reason we all don't just give up hope. They save as many as they can and kill who they have too in order to survive. If they have done anything wrong, they've all made up for it a thousand times over during these last few years. People fear the _Gods of the Night_, but the same people also respect them as well. Have you ever thought about why that is?" Tazuna asked rhetorically. "Honor. All of them have honor, they don't go around backstabbing everyone and they don't kill for fun, only when they absolutely have too.

"So get up off your high horse and come down to reality. Life is full of mistakes, you learn from them and so does everyone else." The room fell silent once the bridge builder finished. Tenten did not dare to speak. She could not even argue with his logic. He was right.

* * *

When Sasuke and Inari arrived at the old Uzumaki household, the Uchiha was prepared to see a small old rundown house covered in vines. The foliage around the house overgrown and wild with no one to maintain a domesticated look. He was expecting to see the wilderness taking over what used to be a domesticated household and a small wooden burial marker. That was not what he got.

What looked to be a Shinto shrine in appearance stood proudly where the Uzumaki household previously resided with an archway before it. A well used pathway lead between the arch and the shrine with a diverging pathway leading to an elegant -expensive- looking grave marker as its destination. Flowers were placed all around the grave along with a variation of offerings, among other thinks an orange jacked faded with age. Life flourished around the shrine, but it was neither a domesticated look nor a wild look. It was something in between the two and it fit the area perfectly.

The place was beautiful.

"When Nami no Kuni started to flourish with life after your first visit here when you saved us all, the people of Wave wanted to construct a shrine to thank the gods and goddesses for sending us help. For sending us Naruto-niisama, you, and the rest of your old team. Yet we did not know where to put it," Inari began to explain, heading for the shrine with Sasuke in tow. "However, a group of people said that they had the perfect place, and went on to explain about the story behind the land. How Uzumaki Hoshi had sacrificed her life for her grandsons and how one of her grandson later came back to save Wave. The decision was unanimous and everything went on without a hitch.

"Grandfather was the one to design the shrine with the men of the groups help and Mom was the one that planted the flowers with the females of the group. It was only when the shrine was completed that it came to our attention that the people who had suggested building the shrine at this location were actually the gods and goddesses themselves that we were building the shrine for," the preteen stated, grinning all the while. "Do you know how cool it was to find out that I got to actually meet a group of gods and goddesses?"

"Try living with them," Sasuke mumbled underneath his breathe, knowing right away who those gods and goddesses were. His ancestors knew what they wanted and went about doing it, not matter what. They were persistent and did not like anyone going against them, it was an obsession. Sadly, he had the same traits, only his obsession was directed towards something -someone- else that he was fighting for.

"Especially knowing that I meet _the_ Inaris, both of them! I didn't even know that there were two, I always thought they were one person," Inari continued to ramble on. The last part caught Sasuke off guard, knowing that the Inaris were both dead, but he had to remind himself that this was before that time. And knowing them from the stories his ancestors told him of the two, the Uchiha had no doubt that they would have helped out with the shrine.

By this time the two were inside the shrine, and Sasuke had to keep himself from bursting out laughing at the interior and who exactly the shrine was dedicated to. He should have know better or at least expected that the shrine had everything to do with Naruto and who he was connected to. Unlike most shrines that were only dedicated to one particular deity, this shrine was divided up into different sections. The first section being dedicated to the Fox God and Goddess with status of kitsune standing before the alter with orange flowers resting at their feet. The second, third, and fourth were dedicated to Susanoo, Tsukiyomi, and Amaterasu, something that made Sasuke's left eye twitch after he caught sight of an Uchiha fan subtle hidden in the decoration. But the main section was dedicated to who else, but Naruto and the Tenshi that saved their village.

"Hn," was the only thing that Sasuke was able to say. No expense was spare in the construction of the shrine it would seem. Everything was of the finest quality from the granite of the alter to the silks of the tapestries inside. The sculptures of the angels were almost life like and they definitely looked like the Tenshi Sasuke knew of and some that he did not know of but could tell that they were unquestionable angels.

"I thought it was beautiful when I first saw it finally finished," the boy stated as he came back from one of the cabinets and handed the Uchiha one of the incense.

Nodding his thanks, the young man took the incense yet they did not burn them at anyone of the multiple alters. Instead, the duo headed back outside and towards the lone grave maker. There the two sat respectfully in front of the grave, burning the incenses and praying for the woman known as Uzumaki Hoshi.

Hours seem to pass by within minutes, but neither one of them spoke.

* * *

"I hate this!" Suigetsu complained, pacing back and forth between one side of the bridge to the other. "Waiting sucks."

"And so do you, but do you see me complaining?" Karin bit back, annoyed at having to wait too. They had been here an hour before the designated time, just to be there incase the dealer showed up earlier and did not have to wait. Nonetheless, it was all in vain, for it was two hours after the meeting time and they were still waiting. That was three hours of doing nothing. Not that she was complaining, seeing as Karin got to spend more time with her beloved Sasuke, but Suigetsu's whining was driving her made. It was enough to drive her mind away from the Uchiha and that was an accomplishment in itself.

"I must agree with Suigetsu," Juugo stated from his spot leaning up against the bridge wall. "This is pointless waiting. We should head on back, the man is not coming."

"We can't do that! The Raijin has been lost to Konoha for years, if we leave now, we might never get a chance like this again!" Tenten cried, for the first time speaking up since they had arrived. Something the members of Team Hebi found very strange. The girl was always looking to get a jive in every chance she could get, yet during the whole time, there had been countless times she could have said something. Not one of these times did the weapons mistress say a thing and chose to keep her mouth shut. She seemed to be lost in deep thought about something or another; they just did not know what.

"We'll wait a while longer," the ANBU captain stated monotone from his resting place on top of the archway with the bridge's name on it. He had jumped up there to stay away from his fangirl teammate. "If there is nothing in an hour's time, we'll head back. There is nothing that can be done if this dealer doesn't show up." His tone was final and no one argued, there was no point in arguing.

Needless to say, an hour went by and no one came. In another half an hour, Team Hebi was slowly making their way back to Konoha empty handed. Though there was something off about their slow journey home. It was not the fact their pace was slower than usual. It was not the fact that the forest was abnormally quiet either. It was the fact there was something pulling at the string of Sasuke's heart. Something he had not felt in years and could not describe with words alone. But it brought up one emotion inside the Uchiha that he could decipher. Fear.

It was only when the sent of metallic hit his nose that Sasuke knew why. Without a second thought, the raven speed up the barely going anywhere pace to a flat out run. The trees passed by him like a blur and the sound of his teammates surprise at the sudden movement was lost on his ears. He was more concerned about where the metallic smell was coming form and praying to Kama-sama that it was not what he thought it was. It only took him a few minutes before he reached the source of the metallic smell.

It was not even in a clearing, but the middle of a cluster of trees. The greenery died red with the metallic liquid he could smell a mile away. Hung from the trees were torn ligaments and body parts, judging by the all the pieces of the human body he could see, there could only be one person. Although, he could have been wrong since the pieces were ripped up in such fine small bits, it was hard to tell. There was one thing known for sure, and that was all the blood in the area could not belong to just one person, there was just too much blood for that to be possible. Heading further into the clearing, Sasuke found that he was correct.

For hanging up in a tree, dangling by a strip of rope was a body of a full grown man. The Uchiha had never seen the man before, but he knew who he was. It was no wonder the weapons dealer never made it to the designated meeting point at the correct time. Judging by the way the body hung and the dried blood run from the man's wrists, he had died the night before at the earliest or early in the morning at the latest. He was definitely tortured before he died and for a long period of time. If he even had the real Raijin, he did not anymore; he did not have anything, even within death.

"Poisoning," Karin stated with one look at the body when she and the others arrived. "Both of them. However, the other body looked like it was given to something to play with first. There were teeth marks on some of the body parts bigger pieces that I could make out and the tearing was ripped apart inhumanly. There had to be more than one of whatever got a hold of the man, fighting over the body. Every part of the body was there, save for the head."

"I can tell you there wasn't much of a fight here, hell there wasn't any signs of a fight," Suigetsu said, kneeling on the ground and scanning everything around him, taking it all in. "The only thing the perpetrator left was the body and the blood. Everything else is either gone or hidden by the blood. This was no bandits doing; this was the work of shinobi."

"Sound shinobi," Juugo continued on, a small yellow canary resting on his shoulder, shaking in fear. "They used multiple sound attacks, scaring most the animals away and rendering the rest incapacitated, just like the weapons dealer and I can only believe was his bodyguard. They too were after the Raijin and they seem to have got it before us. The dealer and the bodyguard were as good as dead the minute the Nidaime's sword landed in their possession."

"But why torture these men if they could easily obtain the sword?" Tenten questioned. "It is too risky with all the shinobi wondering about these days that could have stumbled upon them accidentally. Even Sound nins aren't that foolish, unless- unless they have a reason to be…"

The rest of her sentence fell on deaf ears. It was not like Sasuke was purposely trying to ignore the weapons mistress; it was that he could not. When the clairvoyance aspect of the Sakashima Sharingan activated, the Uchiha lost all senses of what was going on around him. He heard, felt, smelled, tasted, and saw everything in his premonition like it was happening to him in the present. The visions never lasted long in the outside world, but when he was in his mind, it seemed like forever. Sasuke almost snapped out of it immediately and sprang into action.

"Get down!" the ANBU captain called out, interrupting whatever Tenten was still saying. The rest of the squad followed orders almost instantly and no sooner had the lowered themselves to the ground then blades of sound leveled everything about three feet off the ground. The hanging body was cut cleaved in various parts, skewing blood and intestines across the crouching ANBU. None paid any mind to the gore that fell on them. No, their eyes were searching, seeking the culprit of the surprise attack.

The area in front and behind them was clear, metaphorically and literally, of any living beings, while the trees that still surrounded them on both sides were still. The noises level dropped below silence and the air was stiff and rigged. Everything seemed to be in order, but they could all tell that someone was out there. Their presence hung in the air, the person was watching them, waiting.

"Karin," Sasuke whispered harshly, glancing over in the girl's direction, knowing she would get the hint.

"Right," the redhead stated, knowing fully well what her captain wanted. She immediately closed her eyes and searched out for the chakra signature of whoever was waiting for them. Her specialty in chakra sensing was a very valuable asset and came in use more than not. However, this time, she was having a problem trying to find this person's chakra and she it was frustrating her to no end. How hard was it to distinguish one human chakra signature from a forest's chakra signature? It was never this difficult before when they were out in the open area. Suddenly it all made sense. "Kuso," Karin cursed, "it's an ambush! They're surrounding us!"

No sooner had those words left her mouth than a group of rogue shinobi, bandits, and the scum of the earth revealed themselves from their hiding spots surrounding the _Gods of the Night_. The Konoha nins instantly were on their feet ready to fight, seeing as their enemies' summonings and weapons were also ready, however, none of them attacked just yet. They all seemed to be waiting for something, a signal of attack from their leader, but who that leader was, they could not tell.

Seeing movement to his left, Juugo looked to see that the group of rogues and bandits were moving out of the way for a group of people. The group looked better off then the rest of the ragtag, malnourished, bloody vermin. Unlike the rest of them, this group had their clothing in one pieces and were all well feed. There was no sign of the damage of war on their bodies, they looked like the nobility that always hid away in their castles and were safe from everything around them. They were also shinobi. Sound shinobi. And Juugo knew exactly who they were, even after years without seeing them.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" the only female of the group called out. The girl, or more accurately being woman since she seemed to be in her late teens early twenties, had a dark rusty like color hair that reached mid back. Her eyes, which were narrowed in a glare towards them, were dark brown and showed menace within their deeps. Her clothing, which consisted of a brown fighting style short kimono that reached her knees and black pants, seemed to branch off of Orochimaru's style with the giant purple bow in the back. "A bunch of betrayers playing hero and two pieces of trash from Konoha. What a not so pleasant surprise."

On either side of the woman, two boys stood with another right behind her. The man to her right that was about a half a head taller than the woman had ear length bluish-grey hair and beady black eyes on both of his heads. A beaded red necklace wrapped around only one of the two headed male's neck and his clothes were the same colors as the woman's, only he did no have a fighting style kimono, but a regular brown shirt. The guy to the left had black hair up in a ponytail that resembled Shikamaru's hair style and eyes that matched his hair. He was at least a head taller than the woman and his clothing was the exact same as her, only his fighting kimono was white and not brown. However, the most noticeable thing about this guy was the fact he had three sets of arms. Finally, the last guy, who two heads taller than the redhead and directly behind her, was big. He made even Chouji look skinny. One could not even see the man's eye color with his pudgy face concealing it and his hair was a dull lifeless orange, but the grossest thing about him was all he worn was black pants and the purple Orochimaru bow, his blubber hanging out over the waistband in waves.

All four of them were wearing Oto hitai-ate around their foreheads.

Juugo knew all of them, Tayuya, the demon summoner, Sakon and Ukon, twin brothers that kekkei genkai allowed them to merge with other's bodies, Kidomaru, the spider, and Jirobo, the human tank. They were one of the reasons that he came to hate Orochimaru so.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Suigetsu mimicked mockingly, "a bunch of _slaves_ of Orochimaru's that have lost there way. Whatever shall we do with them?"

"Why kill them of course," Karin said, adjusting her glasses as she played along with the swordsman. "After all, Orochimaru would never notice -or even care- that the _Sound Four_ died."

"You slut!" Sakon shouted, a nerve seemingly hit, hard. He launched himself at Karin in anger and rage, he was going to kill her if it was the last thing he ever did. "_We're _Orochimaru-sama's _personal_ bodyguards! Of course he would notice that we've been killed!"

The fight had begun, Karin jumping out of the pathway of Sakon and Ukon's shared body as a bright green chakra surrounded her hands. As those two fought, the rogue shinobi, bandits, and riffraff that had been waiting eagerly to fight the infamous _Gods of the Night_ jumped at the chance. Half of them were almost slaughtered instantly, but they were the riffraff and bandits that thought too highly of themselves. Tayuya was the only one to stay behind as her teammates each took on a former member of Sound. Kidomaru going after Suigetsu and Jirobi facing off against Juugo, leaving Sasuke and Tenten to take care of the rogue nins that had more sense then their comrades and were much more skilled in at fight then the others had been.

Tenten was using her weapons scroll filled with kunai and shurikens to get the nuke-nin that were at a further distance with her precise aim while at the same time using a halberd to hack down the enemies coming at her. Thankfully, all the shinobi facing off against her were not using ninjutsu or she would have been screwed. Being surrounded by these people made it impossible to block all of their ninjutsu if they were going to use any. In a space not far off from her, Sasuke stood on the stump of one of the tree that had been standing mere moments ago, using his Amaterasu covered katana to kill the scum around him. Suigetsu, yards away from Sasuke, was having a hard time dodging all of the spider webs that Kidomaru was regurgitating out. The trees were covered with the slimly things and much to the swordsman's displeasure, his sword could not cut through them. He was stuck dodging all of it at the moment, and hoping against hope not to get caught inside of them.

Karin was having her own little fun, for every time she could get close enough to do major damage to the body Sakon and Ukon shared. Either Sakon used his strength to throw her away or used his speed to dodge and if he cannot use his strength and speed against her, Ukon would come out and stop her. It was not a pleasant fight, she keep on getting thrown into trees or having to dodge a surprise attack from that parasite. So far, she had not been able to land one attack on the damn twins and her anger was starting to boil.

"Is the little piece of betrayer trash upset?" Ukon mocked, his arm coming out to grab hold of Karin's wrist to keep the green chakra away from their shared body. A growl was his only response a fist full of green chakra came sailing at his head, which was located in the middle of Sakon's back at the moment, only to be stopped by Ukon's other hand. "I'll take that as a yes. The little piece of trash is upset."

"Go to hell," the redhead stated flatly, head butting Ukon. The shock that she would do such a thing, combined with the sudden pain, had Ukon loosening his grip on her wrists, but it was enough for the kunoichi to spring away, doing a backflip, before landing a few feet away from the twins. Her hands were glowing a brighter green than before as her rage started to build up even more, and like all hellcats do, she pounced on her prey.

In between Karin's and Suigetsu's fight, Juugo was holding his own against Jirobo. However, the taller of the two was merely dodging the fists and legs thrown his way while Jirobo tried to keep up with him, his own weight slowing him down. Juugo was not even trying to make an effort to fight and that was pissing Jirobo off. Unknowingly to the whale of a man, the gentle giant was actually analyzing his moves, finding any flaws and weaknesses in his taijutsu. There were many. There were no skills behind the punches and kicks, just brut strength. His movements were slowly, jagged, and sloppy, giving away what his next move would be and to top it all off, there was a simple pattern behind the kicking and punching. A left hock, a right jab followed closely by a left kick to the waist area and a left jab and then a right low kick towards the shin before the pattern repeated itself. Occasionally it would change, but not by much.

"Dammit, hold still so I can kill ya!" Jirobo screamed. Juugo was no fool and he did not comply with the requested, however, the tank's next words made his blood run cold. "Just like that Kaguya runt."

Kaguya, Kaguya Kimimaro. He was Juugo's friend, one of the few people that could possible control Juugo during his out breaks even though he was very sick and weak himself. It was because of an illness in his body that Kimimaro was dying, but that was not the reason for his death. The reason for his friend's death and the reason that Juugo stopped trusting in Orochimaru completely was one in the same. It was on the same grounds he wanted to escape from Sound. For Kimimaro, die, was killed, by the Sound Four under Orochimaru's orders. The excuse? Kaguya Kimimaro was of no more value to the snake's plans and was disposable. Juugo had never seen his friend's dead body, but he did hear about how the Sound Four brutally attack Kimimaro outside the gates of Otogakure and left him for dead where his body was eaten by the rabid wild animals of the surrounding environment.

Just thinking about how his friend had died and how lonely he had been in his finally hours caused Juugo's blood to race. He watched as Jirobo formed a sick smile on his face as he continued to talk about how he and the rest of them had killed Kimimaro in the most degrading way possible. Of how he had the satisfaction of breaking the weaken body's spine and the painful cries that came afterwards that was music to his ears. All the while, Jirobo let his cruse seal mark activate and the chain of arrow like marks spread across his body like a snake. But the tank did not stop there and let his seal go one step further to the second stage. His body literally turned red and welts seem to appear across his face. His orange hair lengthened and grew to the nap of his neck while his muscles bulged outwards.

Seeing that his transformation was finished, Jirobo smirked in satisfaction as he looked at the unmoving man across from him and cracked his knuckles. "Now, you die."

His right hand formed a fist and with no second thoughts, the cursed monster threw all his strength into his attack at Juugo. The gentle giant did not even try to dodge the attack this time; instead he stayed where he was with his head bent down and a shadow covering his face. When the attack was just inched away from making contact, the man simply just held up his hand and caught the fist. He held the other's fist in the palm of his hand softly, but with a firm grip the when Jirobo tried to yank his hand away after the initial shock had passed, he found that it was impossible.

Everything seemed to slow down after that. Karin was the first to feel it, but she was too busy fighting Ukon and Sakon to do anything. The redhead cursed at her predicament and it caught the attention of her other teammates, who immediately pick up on what was happening. The only people that did not know what was going on was their enemies and Tenten. In the split second that their attention was diverted away from their own fights, their enemies took advantage of it. All of them changing into their cursed seal -level two- form.

Sakon and Ukon's body shifted to look more like they were a pair of conjoined twins sharing the same body. Out of their heads grew horns and their faces shriveled up and became very pointed with monster like features. Their hair lengthened and changed to a more of a white color. Kidomaru's hair also lengthened and changed white in color as well, causing his headband to fall and a third eye to be revealed. Two horns grew out on either side of his forehead and his features became more spider-like. Even Tayuya, who still had yet to join the fighting, activated her cursed seal mark to the second stage. Three horns came out of her hair while her eyes changed to a yellow color and stretch marks were clearly visible on her face. In all three cases, their skin tones had changed to a red color to match Jirobo's.

With their new strength, thanks to the cursed seals, Kidomaru was able to catch Suigetsu in one of his webs while the other was watching his teammate and Ukon attached himself to Karin's body while Sakon slowly stalked over to her, planning on the finally blow. Seeing this, Sasuke knew the others could not reach Jirobo and Juugo in time and with a powerful blast of Amaterasu towards his enemies, clearing a path, the Uchiha raced to get to his teammate -hoping to reach the other before it was too late- leaving the rest of the rogue shinobi for Tenten to deal with. However, Tayuya decided that it was time she joined the fight and blocked his way by summoning all three of her Doki at one time -knowing that one of them would not stand a chance up against the Uchiha- and had them all attack.

"I am not the one that is going to die here, it will be you," Juugo stated, his voice lower than before and held none of his docile self's gentleness. It was too late. The Yondaime Hokage's seal had broken. Juugo's other side had come out to play. "You forget, your cursed seals were based off me. You'll never hope to come close to beating me with that silly little imitation, do you? Now, what shall I do first? Pull this arm off?" the bloodthirsty man asked, squeezing the hand in his grasp painfully hard. His muscle started to bulge, being altered by his will alone. A satisfied smirk crossed his face when he felt something break in Jirobo's hand. "Or how about your legs? I know, that disquieting tongue of your, I want it-"

Juugo's pulled roughly on the hand in his grasp and Jirobo went toppling forward. He was stopped by the bloodthirsty man's knee in his gut, causing the fat man to vomit, but Juugo did not mind nor care. Instead, the once gentle man's hand shot out and grab a hold of Jirobo's tongue and wrenched the muscle out. Blood spewed everywhere and some of the weaker stomach bandits that had seen the act puked at the sight.

"-Gone," Juugo finished. Discarding the tongue like it was a piece of trash, the bloodthirsty man shoved Jirobo back onto the ground and was rewarded with the pleasure of hearing what sounded like a scream of pain coming from the fat man as he curled up on his side as much as his fat allowed him. Slowly, the man stalked forward, debating with himself on the best course of action in torturing the whelp in front of him. However, Juugo missed the flash of silver tinted purple when Jirobo discreetly unsheathed a concealed dagger - one Orochimaru had presented him with- while his body hid the moments and when the other was almost on top of him, Jirobo sprang.

__

SLASH!

Blood sprayed everywhere as it gushed out of the wound. He was not going to be surviving. He could not. It was a killing blow. He was already dead.

* * *

Again, thanks goes out to all who review and I hope you like.

**_Shi no Tenshi 902_**


	28. Mission Report From Hell

**_I'M STILL ALIVE!_**

Sasuke could already feel the headache forming. This was not going to look pretty on the official report; the Council was going to have a fit. They always want clean cut to the point facts, nothing to deal with Tenshi, Gods, Goddesses, or anything else down the road of supernatural. Not even when these things were clearly around them. Those bastards where closed-minded and could not accept the changes which were happening. They were all idiots if any were to ask Sasuke, but no one ever did, which did not help the Uchiha now though. How was he going to explain this?

Thank Kami-sama that it was night. Thank Kami-sama that the guards on duty did not ask about the number of people in the group. Thank Kami-sama that the roads were clear, no one to run ahead and inform the Council they were back and exactly how many people were in their group. Thank Kami-sama that no one, save the Yondaime Hokage was still inside the Hokage's Tower. He would understand. He always did.

* * *

Kazama Arashi was stilling in his office, his work from today still had yet to be done. Usually he had it all done by the afternoon if there were no meetings and even then, it only took him to three o' clock to finish. However, today was different. Today something was off. He could not understand it, but he was restless, very restless all day long. He could not concentrate and the slightest of things made him jump. Tsunade had even asked him if he was all right and had even given him a physical check up. That was against his will though, but trying to telling the strongest woman in the world no, it was not possible.

He was not the only one that was restless. The spirit foxes where just as restless, if not more so than he was. The four had gone out hunting during the early morning and had each come back with two preys each. Something that surprised Arashi when he woke up in the morning to find three snow hairs, two grey squirrels, a duck, and two doves in his kitchen. He did not even ask where the foxes had gone, knowing that the snow hairs were indigenes to Snow Country, the particular type of grey squirrel had only ever been found in the Grey Mountains located in Cloud, and the birds had migrated to Mist for the winter already. He did not want to even think about how the hell they had been all over the nation in less than two hours, the were spirit foxes, yes, but that was just plan ridicules.

Then in the afternoon, while the Yondaime was caged within his office, the foxes had gone off for an hour and came back covered in ash that made them look black instead of white. Not any ordinary type of ash, but volcanic ash and Arashi knew, _he knew_, that the only active volcano was on an _island_ three hundred miles off the coast of Fire Country's Red Coast, which was another two hundred miles away. Even now, at ten-forty at night, the spirit foxes were just as restless and on the edge as he was. Reimei was pacing back and forth on top of the bookshelf, her fur coat once again clean and shown in the moonlight. Dei was grooming herself, but kept changing spots, at the moment she was sitting on the chair across for the Hokage, her tail moving constantly. Yabun was trying to sleep on the windowsill, however, his body kept twitching in various places constantly and his eye flickering gave away that he had yet to actually fall asleep. Lastly, there was Yuuyami, who was also pacing like Reimei, but unlike Reimei, he was pacing up and down the side of the _wall_. It seemed that this day could not get anymore out of the ordinary if it even tried.

Suddenly, Yabun gave a startled yelp causing all of the other foxes and the Hokage himself to look towards the window. Yabun was sitting on the floor now, shocked badly, looking up at the windowsill. Sasuke crouched where the fox used to lay, his ANBU uniform covered with blood and grass stains. There were no visible cuts or bruises on his being that could been seen with the naked eye, the Yondaime assumed that the blood had not come from the Uchiha. A good sign. The bad sign was the grim looked across the ANBU captain's face.

"What is it?" he Yondaime asked, his voice like stone and full of authority. The uniquely colored blue eyes were hardened and narrowed, waiting for anything his ANBU would tell him.

"We had a little problem," the monotone response came almost immediately. He then went on to tell the Hokage about what had happened on the mission. How the client never showed up and they headed back to Konoha after a while. That was when they found their client and what seemed like his bodyguard dead. He did not go into details on how they had found the swords dealer, but he did go into detail when they were under attack. He went into even more detail when the part of the Sound Four's cursed seals came up and how Juugo's seal broke. A grimace crossed the Yondaime's face at this part, but he did nothing else and continued to listen to Sasuke's explanation on how Juugo had ripped his opponent's tongue out. That was before Jirobo pulled out one of Itachi's purple tinted silver poison weapons.

"K.I.A.," the Hokage whispered quietly, but Sasuke still heard what he had to say. A small smirk formed on the Uchiha's lips as he shook his head negatively.

"Not quite, we had some…interference from…an outside party," the raven stated. Before Arashi could even ask what Sasuke meant, the spirit foxes' ears perked up and their bodies became stalk still. Occasionally their ears would twitch, but other than that, they would not move. Suddenly the four foxes sprang to life, yipping and yelping, barking and whimpering, growling and purring, all at he same time. They were going too fast for Arashi, or even Sasuke for that mater, to understand what they were saying. The foxes went wild when the door opened.

Karin, once she walked into the room, immediately got out of the way, not only because she hated the foxes jumping and yipping around her feet, but also because the other still needed to get inside of the room. However, the foxes did no care instead the checked over the next person, who just happened to be Suigetsu followed by Tenten. Arashi was grateful and slightly surprised when he saw Juugo coming in next with another male following behind him.

The unknowing male was about Sasuke's height, maybe a little bit taller than he was. He had shoulder length hair that was a white color with a grey tint to it. His bangs were held to the side with red cuff likes hair ties that matched the two red dots on his forehead and the red lining around his eyes. His snow-white skin and the red seemed to brighten the light green of the man's eyes, for indeed this person was a man. He had to be in his early to late twenties at least, his clothes did little to distinguish that fact. The man was very well built, and his face was firm and rounded a bit, giving him the look of some type of noble. He wore a pair of blue hakama with a lighter shade of blue haoiri that even furthered enhanced the image of him being from a higher status. Nonetheless, the traveling bag filled with unseen items on his back told differently. Nevertheless, bandits and rogues would still probably attack him for his rich looks and no visible sign of weapons on his person.

"Hokage-sama, meet Kaguya Kimimaro, the man that help save us," Sasuke introduced, his back now leaning up against the window, a leg drawn up to his chest and an arm hanging over it. "He used to be a member of Orochimaru's little group, but once his use ran out, so did his life. However, as you can see, he didn't die. Apparently, a group of misfits had found him in the forest where he was left for the dead and took him in, nursing him back to health. When Kaguya-san was fit, he remained with the group and has been with them ever since."

Arashi turned a questioning look towards Sasuke, wanting to know who this group was, but the raven just nodded his head towards the door. Turning towards the door, the blond hair man almost felt his heart stop. At first, the image was of two genin standing on either side of the door with a third, smaller boy, kneeling on the ground petting the hyper spirit foxes. A red fox kittling of his own was perched on top of the smallest boy's head. The sight was breathtakingly beautiful. However, the illusion shattered and the three small boys and the tiny fox kittling disappeared.

The image of the redheaded genin was taken over by a tall proud man in his early twenties. His red hair was the same as always, if not a little wilder than before and the black rings around his eyes seemed to darken, bring out the color. As it also brought out the fact, he was glaring straight at Sasuke. The love seal kanji shown bright on his forehead, but Arashi could see that the seal had been altered in someway. The redhead's face was narrow, and in a way resembled a panda or raccoon. His figure was that of a seasonal fighter, lean and full of muscles. Dark brown pants and shinobi sandals were the only thing that could be seen passed the sand color cloak wrapped around his body and the gourd on his back. However, when the cloak shifted as a small tan animal came crawling out up onto the redhead's shoulder, a deep dark dull red shirt could be seen.

As for the animal itself, which had perched itself on Gaara's shoulder, the Yondaime could tell almost instantly that the raccoon size animal was a tanuki. Its fur was tan with darker patches here and there while the eyes were bright yellow with a diamond as the pupil and four circles surrounding it. The tanuki was no doubtable the Ichibi no Tanuki, Shukaku, in a smaller form.

Standing parallel to the impassive redhead, a burnet with long hair pulled up into a bun on top of his head while his bangs were pulled to the side with cuff like ice-blue clips. He stood a little less than half a head shorter than the redhead and was around the same age as the other man was. The smaller man looked more feminine, which was notice able in his eyes that were not glaring at Sasuke, but looking at the Hokage with mirth dancing around in them. His face was slim and girlish looking while his body took on the same attributes. With the sleeveless light blue kimono, a dark blue long sleeved shirt underneath that, and dark blue sandals, one could not tell if he was really a boy or a girl. Nevertheless, the hunter nin type of mask that rested on top of the man's head, tilted to the side, told many that he was a skilled shinobi, no matter if he was a boy or girl.

Lastly, Arashi's eyes traveled over to the blond kneeling on the ground petting each of the white foxes in turn. A blood red fox of his own with golden eyes and almost twice the size of a fully-grown tiger with four tails swaying behind it, sat to his side. As if the blond knew that the Yondaime was looking at him, the young teenager stood up and turned to face him. Unique blue eyes clashed with a pair of the same color of unique blue eyes. At his full height, the blond seemed short compared to his brothers and the red fox that stood taller than his waist. He would only come up to Sasuke's shoulders, maybe a little bit taller if the two were standing next to each other.

The teen's blond hair shown with the brilliance of the sun and fell in spiky locks around his slender face. Three whisker-like scars could be seen on either side of his face, the only thing marring his face. But on him, it actually seemed to enhance his blue eyes and fox like features. His skin was slightly tan while his body was slime, lithe, with no ounce of body fat on him. In fact, it rather looked like he was underweight. His arms and legs held no trace or any visible sign of muscles, making him seem weak and very frail. No one would have believed that he was a fighter or warrior of any kind, even if his clothing gave away any indication that he was.

The small teen wore a pair of black form fitting pants that left a whole lot up to the imagination -but there were some hints- black shinobi sandals, and a pure white -slightly loose- sleeveless top. An orange scarf like cloth was wrapped around his shoulders and tied in the back -near the top- with red twine, leaving the long ends to flutter around his kneecaps that made him look like he had two tails. A pair of black elbow length, fingerless gloves covered his arms and a small blue pouch hung off his hips on a black almost unnoticeable belt.

None of them wore their Konoha headbands, at least not visible.

"Hokage-sama," the three Uzumakis, plus Kimimaro, simultaneously greeted, all bowing at the same time. Even Kyuubi that was sitting next to Naruto seemed to bow his head in respect.

* * *

Blood sprayed everywhere. A cry filled with pain and shock shattered the noise in the clearing. The fighting seemed to momentarily stop as they all turned towards Juugo and Jirobo's direction. Half of them startled, half of them shocked, all of them not understanding what was going on.

"You're dead," Jirobo try to mutter without his tongue before he ended up in a coughing fit. However, even if his words had not sounded anything like they should have, they all knew what he had meant. None seemed to notice the blood coming out of his mouth and running down the cursed seal user's chin, their eyes focused elsewhere. "You're _supposed _to be dead," the dying man repeated somewhat clearly.

"So I am," the new comer said, looking out of the corner of his eyes towards Jirobo. The man had yet to move from his crutching position. His left arm, which was definitely not an arm but a sword seemingly attached to his should, still out stretched, puncturing through the tank's heart. "No thanks to you. But Kami-sama sent an angel to save me," the white haired man stated, shoving his left arm sword deeper into Jirobo, causing him to gasp in pain. Yet, for all his gasping, he could not pull air into his lungs. His body was failing him and there was nothing going to save his pitiful life. Finally, the tank's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he stopped gasping. He was dead and the only thing keeping him up was the white haired man, who pulled his sword arm out of Jirobo and let the carcass fall to the ground while his arm reconfigured itself to parallel his right arm's image.

"Kimimaro," Juugo breathed, not believing his eyes and what he was seeing. It seemed all too surreal, like it was just a dream and he never wanted to wake up from it. The gentle giant did not even realize when his bloodthirsty personality slowly receded -as well as his cursed body- back towards his docile personality. He never notice when the fighting started up around him as his teammates once again started to fight for their lives. He slowly walked forward towards his supposedly dead friend, wanting to touch him to make sure he was alive. When he was just before the other, Juugo reached out his hand and brushed aside the locks of white hair in Kimimaro's face before settling his hand on the smooth white skin. "You're alive. How?"

"Like I said," Kimimaro replied, leaning into the touch, "Kami-sama sent an angel to save me."

"Not to be rude of anything for interrupting this touching reunion, but, may I point out that," Suigetsu stated, hanging above the other two's head from Kidomaru's spider webs, which he could not escape from. Somehow, the stupid webs were keeping him from changing into his water form, and draining his chakra at the same time. "There is a battle going on around us and I'm about to be eaten alive by this spider freea-yow!"

The last part of Suigetsu's sentence was cut short by the indestructible webs breaking and his body falling to the ground. For a shinobi, the swordsman had not landed so gently either, and ended up hitting the ground pretty hard on his backside. A groan of pain came from the teen, yet he did not move. Kidomaru was not so lucky when he fell, he could not even catch himself since he was frozen inside a block of ice. One that would not be melting anytime soon. Not far away from the ice Kidomaru, Sakon and Ukon were withering in pain. Karin, a sadist at heart, had used some of her medical knowledge and her own poison concoction, reduced them to a puddle of liquid. Literally.

Sasuke easily took care of Tayuya, once he disabled her of her flute and the Doki she was easily taken out. He never gave it a second thought as he killed the girl, she worked for Orochimaru, who worked for his brother and he could not let her live. He could not let any of them to live. Thankfully, Jirobo was dead, thanks to Kimimaro's sudden appearance, Sakon and Ukon were killed by Karin, he took out Tayuya, but that left Kidomaru. Someone took the man out, and it was not one of his teammates or Kimimaro. Who was it?

He did not have time to think about that though, they still had to get rid of the rogues and bandits that Tenten was slowly losing ground with. There seemed to be a never-ending supply of the stupid little bugs, but that was going to end now. Activating his Sakashima Sharingan, the Uchiha called forth his chakra and putting it into his katana. He was planning to use his _Takama-ga-hara no Ryu_, but he never got the chance. Out of the corner of his eyes, Sasuke saw blades of chakra whirling around the area, coming towards them. The blades swerved around the trees and foliage, never disturbing anything, he would never have even noticed they were there if he had not had his Sakashima Sharringan activated. The bad part? They were coming right at him and his teammates.

It was too late for the Uchiha to warn the others, he need not have to, for the chakra blades split and separate. All of the blades missed the Konoha nin and Kimimaro with inches to spare, but the rest were not so lucky. The rogues and bandits were sliced to pieces, blood splattering everywhere. Nothing was left of them; the chakra blades not only chopped them up, but also totally annihilated every piece of them. The clearing became very quiet, everyone's eyes darting around to where the powerful attack came from. If one attack took out all the bandits and the person was not friendly, they were going to be in big trouble. Hell, Sasuke could not even track where that attack originated.

"Karin," Sasuke barked, eyes darting around the clearing.

"There's two very powerful human chakras, but there's something off about both of them. They don't feel like a normal human's chakra would, and…" Karin trailed off, feeling another chakra signature, but it was definitely not human and she could not pinpoint it exactly. The thing seemed to be moving, and fast. She had to close her eyes and focus harder on the thing, it took her some time, but she found it and the location of it was not good. Whirling around towards, Karin shouted out her warning. "SASUKE!! WATCH OUT!!"

Her warning came too late, though. The Uchiha only had enough time to see a flash of red before he was hit, the force knocked him to the ground and a heavy weight rested on top of him. The others -save Kimimaro- watched in horror as a giant fox, almost twice the size of a large cat, pounced on their captain. Its paws extended out, pushing the raven back onto the ground and its face right next to his face. Then the fox started to growl and move his muzzle closer, their captain seemed like a goner.

__

"Sasuke!"

The voice was deeper, more mature than he remembered, but Sasuke knew it without a doubt. Opening his eyes, he had closed them on impacted automatically, the ANBU captain locked eyes with golden eyes with slits for pupil. The movement of four tails behind the giant fox caught his attention, yet he could not focus there for long. The fox had started to lick him to death. The other just watched, wide eyed and still with shock as the fox happily waged its tails and licked the raven. It came more of a surprise when Sasuke started to laugh. Not one of those chuckles he would give every now and then, but a good heartfelt laugh.

"Kyuubi, get off already," the Uchiha scolded in good nature, pushing the fox off of him and sitting up. The fox did what he said but did not go far from the man's side; instead, he sat down right next to him, with a foxy smile on his face. Looking at the kitsune, to make sure that it was truly the Kyuubi no Kitsune, Sasuke shook his head and looked upwards towards the tree that still stood. Instantly he spotted them, a hunter nin look-alike sitting on a branch above Kidomaru's frozen body, a senbon being twirled in his hands, and a redhead hanging upside down on the same branch, his cloak fall around him and a small tanuki huddled on his shoulder having no problems with gravity. "Haku-san, Gaara-san, long time to see," Sasuke addressed the two brothers formally, not giving any indication to his teammates, who seemed to be very confused at the moment, or Tenten, who became rigid at the mention of their names.

The two brothers disappeared from their original spots up in the tree only to appear before Sasuke. Gaara in a whirl of sand and Haku through one of his ice mirror. His teammates watch them like a hawk, ready to attack if the newcomers tried anything. But by the way, their captain was treating them- with _respect_- they were sure the two would not. It was a little disconcerting though, the one wearing the mask seemed to be a hunter nin. Still they relaxed, knowing they could trust Sasuke.

"It has, Sasuke-kun," Haku said, holding out a hand to the younger man. Taking it, the Uchiha was lifted up with a surprising amount of ease. The other's body did not look strong, but he was. Once the raven was up, the burnet let go of his hand and pulled his hunter's mask up. His eyes shining with happiness to see a familiar face after all these years, but they also had an underlying threat to them. One that spoke of a lot of harm if the Uchiha tried anything with his little brother. Haku was protective as ever, and judging by the glare coming his way from Gaara, so was he. The only thing was wrong, was Naruto was nowhere in sight.

Sasuke opened his mouth to speak, but he never got the chance. The sound of the wind began to whirl around the clearing making noises. The problem with that being that there was no wind to make a sound. It did not help the noise was coming from all over, echoing, and there was no other chakra signature outside their little group. Soon the noise became louder and turned in to words, not just the whispering in the wind. It was actually a voice.

"Damn snake. Damn summoning. Damn summoners. Damn. It. All!" a soft mutter was heard as the foliage to their right began to move. Suddenly, a blond boy bushed his way through the trees and stopped in his tracks when he saw the group surrounding him. He blinked cutely a couple of times in his confused state. "Sasuke, Tenten-san, what are you doing here?"

Sasuke's mouth went dry. What were _they_ doing there? They were on a goddamn _mission_. What the hell were **_they_ doing here? That was _his _question. He had spent _years _looking for the blond and now, he was right before him and Sasuke did not know _how_ to react. Like Naruto said. Damn. _It. _****All.**

"Naruto," Sasuke mouthed, not sure if he was actually saying his name or not. Apparently, he had, for Naruto looked at him questioningly before give the Uchiha one of his best smiles that made the raven's heart flutter and turning back to the others. The blond surveyed the clearing making sure everything was all right and clear.

"No one was hurt, right?" the youngest Uzumaki asked, concerned about everyone's well being, even those he did not know. He trusted them, because Sasuke trusted them, he could feel it in their bond they shared, and Kimimaro seemed to trust the tall one too, so they could not be evil.

"Everyone is fine Naru-chan," the monotone voice of Gaara stated, the Ichibi on his shoulder nodding his head in agreement.

"What took you so long?" Haku asked, in mild curiously, but more so because of his overprotective nature towards the blond.

Grinning sheepishly, Naruto pointed at his familiar. "The traitor abandoned me and I had to take care of him all by myself." The last part was said as the blond motioned behind him to the carcass of the one he had to get rid of on his own. Peering through the foliage, the members of Team Hebi were dumbfounded to see the body of the Snake Boss summoning, Manda, the frail looking blond had been dragging along behind him with no trouble.

"A wingless Tenshi, Naruto, that is who saved me," Kimimaro whispered out, but his words were ignored.

* * *

"And that is what happened," Sasuke finished his oral report, wondering what the hell he was going to write in the written report. That was the copy that the council would be seeing and he did not know what to put down paper. The swords dealer was murdered before they had even got to him and the Nidamie's sword was nowhere to be found, maybe? That would not go over well. One of his teammates had almost died but was saved by an ex-Oto nin? The old bastards would be disappointed Juugo had not been killed and they were probably getting _another_ ex-Oto nin as a shinobi. Or he could put his favorite part; the most unpredictable shinobi in the history of the world had killed Manda and was back. Like hell, Sasuke would never tell those bastards Naruto was back, they would want to get their grubby hands on **_his_ Soul Mate. ****Not **going to happen.

Hell, he had yet to even get any time to speak to **_his _blond. Yes, Uchiha Sasuke was a very possessive person when it came to certain things, and one of those just happened to be Naruto. However, he wanted to get the Uzumaki brothers and the Kaguya, back to Konoha -and away from his brother- as fast as he could. So there had been no time to talk, they had just cleaned up the area, erasing all evidence of their existence -which was not a lot seeing as Naruto's group left none behind- and left. The trip back was made in completely silence, all of the shinobi knowing that this was neither the time nor the place to talk. Enemies had their eyes and ears everywhere and they needed to be careful.**

"I see," Arashi said calmly, but his betrayed him as they keep on darting towards the blond. To everyone else, it went unnoticed, but to his former raven haired student, it was as clear as day. "As of now, the mission has been raised to an S-rank. Any and all details containing this mission shall be disposed of as a precaution. Furthermore, all of you are to act as if this mission never happened. Only a select few will be informed and even then, they will be told to never speak of this mission. Is that clear?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama," a chorused response met his answer.

"Good," the Yondaime stated, his eyes seemed to lighten up. "Now on to housing arrangements for Kaguya-san and the Uzumakis, seeing as their house was burned away," the blond haired man went on, not missing the winces from Haku and Naruto when they heard their house was gone. He felt a pang of guilt traveling through his being at causing his son pain. "For tonight, you can all stay the night here in some of the guestrooms reserved for nobility during their stay and figure out further arrangements later, if there are no objections."

"No, Sir, that is fine with us," Kimimaro answered for all of them.

"Good, then I want all of you to go get your after mission physical as per usual standards and head on out," Arashi stated watching them all give a visible sign of acknowledgment. All of them headed out the door, but as Naruto -for he was the last to leave- was about to exit, the blond man called him back. The younger blond closed the door behind him and turned back around to face the Yondaime, but he was not the Hokage anymore. He was Kazama Arashi, finally getting to speak to his son -knowing that the boy was indeed his son- for the first time.

He had imagined this moment in his head millions of times after finding out who Naruto truly was. He waited for this day to come for five years, he dreamed of this day. Everything was to be perfect and he knew exactly what to say after all those time he thought it over in his head. However, sitting at his desk now, looking at the frail young teen, everything just seemed to slip away. Everything he had rehearsed, dreaded of what would happen, just slipped away from him. Time seemed to stand still. He could not find any of the words he wanted to use, to say, there was so much. Too much. Yet he could never express all his feels through words alone.

He did not have to. His heart took control of his body and the next thing he knew, the small blond was held tightly in his arms, hugging him, as his voice cooed inaudible mutterings. He never even realize the tears silently rolling down his face, he just knew his son was finally home. Finally in his arms, save and sound. Everything would be all right; everything _had_ to be all right.

"I missed you too, _Otou_-sama. I missed you too."

* * *

"Hyuuga-sama, we have a group of shinobi coming for their post mission physical and not enough on duty medics since Karu-kun and Yume-chan called in sick," a nurse explained to Hinata. "Could you…?"

"I'll do it, Kisei-san," the Hyuuga Heiress sighed, pulling back on her white doctor's coat she only just taken off. She was tired, very tired; her day had been a long one, having double duty, but also because it was very busy as well. Normally, she could take up such things, yet, lately, everything had been taking a toll on her. She had no way of releasing any of her pent up anxiety, not when she was always worrying about her missing Soul Mate. It just gave her more anxiety, so she would work herself to exhaustion, so she did not have time to think. She could not afford to think or she would go insane.

Sighing once again, Hinata picked up the clipboard outside of the door and looked it over as she headed inside. "Alright, it says here that you've been gone for a while on a long term mission. In that time having you gotten any serious, life threatening, injures?"

"Yes." The answer was quick and to the point, just like most well train ninja's answers should have been. However, this one was different. This answer caused Hinata's body to freeze up on its own accord and her limbs to become weak. She did not ever register the clipboard had slid out of her hands and fell to the ground with a clink. All the medic-nin realized when her head had snapped in the direction of her patient was that she was staring into eyes, beautiful eyes, filled with love. One word on her lips. "Gaara-kun."

"Yeah, it's me, Hinata-hime," Gaara said, showing one of his rare moments of emotions, as the redhead pushed himself off the wall he had been leaning on while he waited. When his Soul Mate made no move to come towards him, the woman being too stunned to move, the oldest Uzumaki sibling made his way over to her. Intending to draw her into his arms and kiss his love. Nothing goes as planned, for the moment Gaara was within her reach, Hinata did her own welcoming back.

"You _baka!_" the woman all but shouted -they still were in the hospital after all and the sick did need their sleep- throwing her hands up in the air overdramatically. "You were gone for five years -**_five years!_- and not one -****_one_- letter. Not _one _message on how you were doing! Or how things were fairing for you! _Nothing _at ****all**! I was **worried **sick! I didn't _know _what happened! I didn't know if you were _dead _or **alive**! I didn't know if the Destroyer had gotten to you or not! And what of my poor little **_Naru-chan_?! What of _him _and ****Haku-niichan**?! **_They _could have been _killed _too and ****I **wouldn't even know and it would have been _all _**your _fault_!"**

All throughout Hinata's ranting and raving, she had slowly been advancing towards the redhead, fearless vessel of Ichibi no Tanuki and the demon himself -that was clinging on his host shoulder- were slowly backing away. That is, they were slowly backing away until they ran out of space and hit the wall with the raging woman still come towards them. There was no way out, the Hyuuga Heiress was blocking the only door and there were no windows, Shukaku knew this. He knew there was no escape for the both of them, so he did the only thing he could, he went back side his host body and away from the demon woman.

Gaara, feeling the weight on his shoulder disappear and the chakra Shukaku used to form a body of his own return, cursed the terrified demon for leaving him alone with his Soul Mate and not taking him with the tanuki. He was really going to get it now; the redhead could just feel the waves of killer intent rolling off Hinata. With no further warning, she attacked. He was doomed.

A pair of warm, luscious lips. Her hands had snaked their way around his neck, pulling the taller one closer, deepening the kiss as Gaara wrapped his arms protectively around her waist.

Uzumaki Sabaku Gaara was glade to be home.

* * *

Outside the room, Haku leaned up against the hospital door with a smile on his face. Sure, he was going to have to wait a while for his own physical examination, but his brother needed to get laid even more. Nevertheless, hearing his brother make out with his Soul Mate, the Hyoton user felt his heart drop. The thought made his eyes, unknowingly, shine with a hint of sadness and longing. He wanted someone of his own, someone to protect him, someone for him to protect, to love and hold onto forevermore. Sure, he had his brothers and his family, but he needed more. He needed a lover of his own.

Gaara had Hinata, they were Soul Mates and they would never leave each other, not for someone else. There was no way those two could be separated ever again. Haku knew that and he suspected Naruto knew that too, since he was the one that thought it was time to return, even though the blond still had more to learn over his powers. He needed more time to become stronger, but Naruto was never content on seeing others suffer, physically or emotionally. Yet no one argued with his choice, not even Kimimaro, who had no ties with Konohagakure, did not argue and they all headed back.

Haku did not argue, even though he had no one back here either. Sure, he had his family, but no one to love him like Gaara did. And Kimimaro too, judging by the way the white haired man never left the giant man's side, Juugo. It would seem even he had someone to love. Hell, even Naruto had someone, no matter how much he hated to admit it; Haku knew that Sasuke was his little brother's Soul Mate. They would be together, even if Gaara and him did not think the Uchiha worthy enough for their pure little brother. No one would ever be good enough for him.

Sighing sadly, Haku leaned his head back up against the door, his thought process getting him nowhere.

"What is one as pretty as yourself doing looking so sad?" a male voice asked flirtatiously, causing Haku's eyes to snap open. The burnet blushed lightly as he looked at the person who was invading his person space, leaning his arm up against the door over the Hyoton user's head to support the man's body weight.

At first, Haku had to blink a few time, to make sure he was not seeing anything and to clearing his vision, but the image never wavered. The man before him, oddly enough, looked a lot like Sasuke. However, this guy's hair was shorter and plastered to his face; it was also not as black as the Uchiha's own locks. His eyes seemed more of a dark brown than black and his skin looked an unhealthy pale color, almost as if he had never seen the light of day before. Being so closed to the unknown man, Haku could see there were concealed black rings around his eyes and the weariness that accompanied it. He could also tell that the man's whole appearance was a façade and he immediately did not trust him, even if he donned the Konoha headband. There was also the fact that his guy had no sense of style, wearing a black shirt that showed off his belly and tight pants to match. Was he insane or just plan crazy?

"You know, I haven't seen you around before," the man continued when Haku gave no sign of answering his question. He even completely ignored the fact the other was glaring at him and did not seem to like his presence at all, the raven haired man just keep on smiling that fake smile of his. "And that makes me wonder. Why someone so cute has escaped my notice?"

Unconsciously, Haku started to cool the air around them, dropping the temperature greatly as he stealthily making a senbon out of ice, hidden by his sleeves. To distract his movements, Haku answered the man. "It's not my fault that you're so blind that you haven't notice me nor is it my fault you can't tell that I'm not a girl. For your information, I'm fully male, just like you. Given your condition of being blind, I guess I really shouldn't take offense to that."

The man reeled back a little bit from the comment, but he did nothing else. His creepy, fake smile never disappeared. In all reality, it actually seemed to grow even bigger than before. Something that did not bond well with Haku when the man leaned closer to him and his face was only a breath away from his face.

"That just makes it all the more interesting now then, doesn't it?" the man asked seductively, leaning forward as if he was going to kiss him. Haku, narrowed his eyes even more, and made a move to stab the man with his needle, but, unfortunately, he did not get the chance. Someone interrupted them.

"Sai," a hard, almost angry sounding, voice stopped the man's -Sai's- movements. "This is a place for the sick and injured and as far as I can see, you're neither of which. But if you're not gone soon, you will be." The threat was there; Haku could feel the other person's power and knew he could back up that threat. However, Sai's face did not change; in fact, his smile grew even bigger from before as the raven haired pushed himself off of the wall and turned towards the intruder of his little fun. It also gave the Uzumaki his chance catch a glimpse of him as well.

The man was tall, with free trestles of dark brown hair that was even longer than Haku's own when loose. He too was pale, but unlike Sai's pale, his looked healthy and suited him. His body structure was lean, but muscular and he looked like a nice charming young man. If one where to ignore the fact he wore the clothing of a hunter shinobi of Konoha, his mask tilt on top of his head like Haku's was, and the chain with bladed edge that hung on his left side. One would also have to ignore the fact that the Byakugan was glaring daggers at Sai.

Hyuuga Neji had indeed grown into a fine young man.

"Ah, Hyuuga-san, it is a pleasure seeing you once again," Sai mocked the hunter.

"ROOT's lapdogs have no place here," Neji growled, his left hand going to his chain-blade weapon. "Leave _now_."

"As you wish, Hyuuga-san, just remember there is only you and SEED to blame when Konoha falls for letting spies like him into our gates," the ROOT member jabbed, pointing his figure towards the Hyoton user, not noticing the way the temperature was slowly becoming to feel like a winter's storm. Haku did not take well to being called a spy, especially by someone from ROOT, and before Sai knew what was happening or Neji could stop him -not that he wanted to- the enraged burnet threw his senbon with deadly accuracy. The needled embedded itself into the ROOT ANBU's neck in just the right pressure point to cause the man to fall into a coma. It would only last a week, at least.

The nurses around the room, seeing the ANBU fall, ran to his side, checking him over. None of them ever noticing the puncture wound in his neck. Haku was smart enough to throw an ice senbon that melted almost instantly after it had done its job. Not finding anything physically wrong with the raven, the nurses figured that it was from fatigue and put him in one of the rooms to sleep his exhaustion away.

The Uzumaki had come to watch the women work standing beside Neji and once they were gone and out of hearing range, the fake hunter nin turned towards the hunter nin. "Long time to see, Neji-san."

"Ah, it has Haku-san," Neji replied, just as politely, looking at Haku in away that made his heart beat quicken. He did not understand what was happening with his body, but the ice user could feel a blush spread across his cheeks and quickly looked else where, something that did not go unnoticed by the Hyuuga. A small affectionate smile spread across his face as he watched the other man fidget under his gaze.

In the years that had passed by, Neji had dated on and off a few times. Tenten once or twice, but he never felt anything. Not with any of them. He felt so alone and after an especially bad date gone horrible wrong, the Hyuuga had called it quits on love. He had thrown himself into his work and did the best he could. He trained himself to death it seemed. However, after coming back from a mission and walking passed Hinata's room, the man had heard the heiress crying, pleading to the Gods and Goddesses to bring Gaara back to her. A pang of sorrow for his cousin ran through him and he thought about how she had acted so happy and lively during the Chunnin Exams all those years ago. When she was with the oldest Uzumaki.

During his musings, his mind drifted off its initial path and started thinking about the Uzumakis and not just Gaara. Yet he was thinking more about one in particular. His mind, no matter what it did after that night, always seemed to drift towards Haku. He kept thinking of the other burnet and could not help but worry about him. His heart fluttered every time he saw ice attacks being used and he always found himself looking towards the users, but when he did not recognize them. When they were not Haku, his heart would fall and he would feel sick. It was not until a few months later that he realized what was going on. He was in love with Uzumaki Haku.

"So what are you doing here?" Haku asked, trying to mask the blush on his face. The Hyoton user did not know why, but he felt like he had little ice senbon prickling his skin and his insides felt like a snowstorm was raging on.

"I came to pick Hinata-hime up, we were going to have a late dinner together, but she seems busy at the moment," the Hyuuga said, looking towards the door as a particular loud thump came from the inside. "Very busy."

"Ahhh, yes, Gaara and her will be a little while and after that, I need to get a physical as well. I would think it wise if you were to reschedule with her for another time," the burnet stated, feeling a little embarrassed that he was talking to the girl's cousin who his brother was more than likely having sex with at the moment and was blushing like mad. "If you want, I could tell her you stopped by, that way you don't have to wait."

Neji cocked one of his eyebrows, but smiled. The man in front of him was so cute when he was blushing and he was always considerate. "That would be lovely, but if you don't mind, how about I wait with you? That way you're not so lonely?"

"Su-re," the Uzumaki stuttered slightly, his blush deepening while his heart pounded.

'Maybe,' Haku thought to himself, sneaking a peek of the Hyuuga out of the corner of his eyes as they waited together, 'maybe I'm not as alone as I thought. Maybe, I have found my Soul Mate as well.'

And Uzumaki Momochi Haku was glade to be home.

* * *

After finishing with his physical, there was nothing more that Sasuke wanted to do right then than to run back to the Hokage's Tower, just to see if Naruto was there and everything had not been some twisted genjutsu. Yet he refrained from doing so, the raven knew the blond haired teenager was not a genjutsu used on him by some cruel Oto shinobi, the giant red fox following him proved that. He would be able to tell if it was anyways, just like the other times some hotshot ninja thought they could take him down using a genjutsu; he could always tell the differences. But the Uchiha still wanted to see the blond, it was just, he would not.

Naruto needed time with his father. _Alone_. Just the two of them, to sort things out and to talk and Sasuke respected that. He would give them all the time they needed. But it still, did not stop him from wanting to be with the blond.

It did not help Sasuke had somehow become the unofficial caretaker of four fully-grown white spirit foxes and the Kyuubi no Kitsune. The five foxes would not leave his side and the people around the hospital were starting to stare. Sure, they all knew about the four white foxes the Hokage had taken in after his near death experience five years ago, but they were not with the Yondaime, they were with _Uchiha Sasuke_. Something that made a real big difference. That and the fact there was a fifth fox that was bigger than the Inuzukas' dogs and had **four** tails. With all the staring, the Uchiha had sought out refugee outside the hospital.

He sat on top of the roof while looking up at the stars and the moon, seeking out the comfort of Tsukiyomi. Even if she was not looking down at him at this second, he always found comfort in the rays of her silvery light. Just like he found comfort in the gold rays of Amaterasu's light and Susanoo's raging storms. The five foxes all surrounding him as they too looked up at the moon's domain.

Finally, after an hour or so, Sasuke saw the two Uzumaki brothers plus the Hyuuga cousins exit the building followed by Kimimaro and Juugo. The rest of his team, the raven could sense, were still inside the hospital, more than likely getting his or her own examinations over with. It did not matter to him at the moment; instead, the Uchiha simply pushed off the edge of the building and landed on the ground with effortlessly. The four spirit foxes simple just disappearing from the rooftop and reappearing on the ground next to the raven as spirit would do. Kyuubi, seeing Hinata, bounced off the rooftop and without a sound landed before bounding off towards her side. Unlike Sasuke, he did not tackle her to the ground, but nudged her with his nose and whined for acknowledgement, which she gave him along with a petting.

Making his way towards the group, Hinata looked up to see the approaching man and smiled happily, her cheeks glowing with life and happiness. The woman nodded her head, and mouthed a silent thanks before they all headed off to the Hokage's Tower. None of them spoke, none feeling the need too. All were content in their own right. Gaara had Hinata wrapped up in his cloak, Shukaku held in her hands as the woman cooed over the cute demon -which highly ironic- while he was walking right next to her protectively. Neji had his arm over Haku's should, something that cause a seemingly permitted blush on his face and a cocky smirk on the Hyuuga. Juugo and Kimimaro walked not too far behind the two couples, their hands intertwined, no questions being asked about how they had ended up there and other such things. And bringing up the back, Sasuke walked with Kyuubi to his right and the other four foxes prancing around his feet.

When they reached the tower, the group headed up into Hokage's office, but they did not dare go inside. Most of them knew what was going on inside, and none of them wanted to intrude. They did not have to thankfully, for the Arashi sensed their chakra signatures as soon as they came in and called for them to enter. A sigh of relief passed through the lips of those that knew what was happening before they entered. What they found, was the Yondaime Hokage of Konohagakure sitting on the floor with his back leaned up against his desk and a sleeping blond resting in his lap.

Never looking away from the innocence radiating off his son's face as the teen slept while running his hand through the gold locks of the sleeping angel, Arashi gave them an explanation, even though he did not have too. "He was more tired than I thought. He just fell asleep in my arms and I didn't have the heart to move him. He looked so peaceful, I just couldn't."

"I'm surprised he actual fell asleep," Haku said, detangling himself from Neji -much to the man's displeasure- and walking over to kneel next to his little brother and the boy's father. "Naruto rarely sleeps at all and when he does, he wakes up at the slightest of noises." Seeing as their time spent on the move, Naruto and Haku had both become healers of sorts to heal themselves and others they came across. Nevertheless, even with being a healer and having their grandmother's knowledge of medicine in their heads, the Hyoton user could never get his brother to sleep without waking up at the slightest of sounds. It was a miracle he had yet to wake up as it was.

"Well then, we better not wake him," Arashi stated, gathering the small teen up in his arms and pulling himself to his feet. The older man wavered at first, his legs having fallen asleep, but he never fell and once he gained his bearings, he led the group to the rooms that they would be using for the night. Even if the night was already half over.

There were five rooms in total, so if they were all going to stay, they had to share. There were no questions asked when Gaara and Hinata headed in the same room, all the shinobi could tell by body language alone what had transpired during Gaara's _physical_. However, Sasuke did not miss the way Gaara glared at him one last time before being pulled into the room by Hinata and the door closing. Haku took a room for himself, Neji having to head back to the Hyuuga clan to inform them their heiress would not be back for a little while. Kimimaro also took a room for his own and head off to bed after Juugo wished him a good night sleep. Arashi took the second to last room, laying Naruto down in the soft bed and tucking the small blond in and giving him a small fatherly kiss on the forehead. However, the man did not leave the room; instead, he laid down on one of the couches and went to sleep there. He did not want to be separated from his son, not so soon after getting him back. Yabun and Reimei made themselves comfortable lying next to the Hokage while Kyuubi, Yuuyami, and Dei slept with Naruto. The last room was left empty.

Juugo and Sasuke making there way back to the Hokage's office where they felt their two fellow teammates were waiting for them.

"Sasuke-kun, just who are those people? Tenten and the Hokage both were startled when they first saw them and they acted very particular," Karin assaulted Sasuke with the questions as soon as they both walked through the door. "And why, no**_ how_ is Kimimaro still alive? With his illness, he should be long dead by now. No offense Juugo, but even Orochimaru could not find away to cure him, but he's still alive. He has none of his illness's symptoms and he's in perfect health, that's not possible."**

"Well, it must be possible, since Kimimaro is still alive and as he said himself, the others helped him. They were the ones that probably found a cure for his illness," Juugo said kindly, not taking any offense Karin calming the Kaguya should have been dead. It was true after all and for the passed few years, he had actually thought of his friend as dead. "Just because Orochimaru couldn't cure him, doesn't mean there wasn't away. The man didn't even try to find a cure, if he did, he would have probably come across a cure a long time ago."

"But that doesn't tell us who these people are. They all wore no headbands or anything to identify where they are from. How do we know if they can be trusted?" Karin argued back. She never liked not knowing things, and not knowing who the Uzumakis were and being left in the dark irritated her to no end.

"Kimimaro trust them, that's good enough for me," the gentle giant stated.

"The Kaguya also trusted Orochimaru and look what happened."

"_We_ also trusted Orochimaru," Suigetsu pointed out. "And they help us during the fight."

"It could just be just a ploy, to get us to trust them," the redhead pointed out, referring to what she knew of the unknown group. "And then there is that fox. It's twice the size of a tiger, **a tiger**, and has **four tails**. There is something definitely not right whit that."

"But Tenten and the Hokage were both shocked to see them, meaning they that they know each other. Also, the Hokage raised the rank of the mission and made sure we would not talk about what happened on the mission. A clear sign that he wants to protect them from either the Council or some outside force," the swordsman contradicted the uptight medic. "Let's not forget the fact our fearless leader also was very polite to the older two, even when they were hostile with him and that fox seemed very happy to see Sasuke as well."

All eyes turned towards the Uchiha, who had, up until now, went unnoticed by the group standing in a small circle in the middle of the room. The raven had stayed quiet all throughout their little arguing over the Uzumaki brothers and if they could be trusted or not. It would seem that they had never heard of them in all their time in Konoha. He would not blame them though, usually they were out on missions and he himself never talked of the Uzumakis when on a mission. As far as he knew, most the people who had bond with any of the three brothers had not talked about them all that much, all for their own reasons.

Uncrossing his arms, Sasuke stood up straight and headed out of the room, ignoring the curious looks of the rest of the _Gods of the Night_. "If you want to know more about them, coming to my house early tomorrow morning. You'll get your answers then." With that said, the Uchiha went back to the guest rooms in the tower, taking the last one, which happened to be the one right next to the two blonds.

The others just stared at the back of their leader, but none did everything to stop them. Seeing no use in staying, and trusting Sasuke and Kimimaro, Juugo left to go to his apartment. Suigetsu, even though he was curious about the three newcomers, more so the blond seeing as the other two were taken, left as well. He'd get his answers in the morning. Karin was the last to leave, but she was not happy about it. She wanted answers, but she was not getting them. With a huff, the young woman left the room, heading home and setting her alarm clock to go off early in the morning so she could finally get the answers she wanted.

After all, Uchiha Sasuke was glade that Uzumaki-Kazama Naruto was home.

* * *

The next morning was a strange one. Those that spent the night at the Hokage Tower were gone by the time the ANBU had done their shift change. All of them plus Neji and Juugo were at the Uchiha compound, but all of them keep their chakra suppressed and being as quiet as possible since there were other shinobi that were still fast asleep in the house. All of them that needed, took turns using the bathrooms to be cleaned up and wash off all the grim and gunk that had collected on their bodies. Afterwards they had changed in a fresh pair of clothing.

At the moment, it was five-thirty and Arashi was just finishing his shower, being the last one to go. And when he was finished, the Yondaime walked back downstairs, being careful not to wake Tsunade and Zabuza; those two were not morning people. Reaching the kitchen, the blond man look around the room to see the rest of them were all scattered throughout the room. Kimimaro and Juugo were sitting at one end of the table wearing what looked to be the same exact clothing as before, but cleaner. Gaara was sitting at the other end of the table, wearing tan color pants and a long sleeve dark red shirt, his gourd nowhere in sight. Next to him sat Neji, wearing a white long sleeve shirt and black pant. On the other side of the kitchen, sitting at the breakfast counter, Sasuke resided wearing only a pair of black drawstring pants and a green nightshirt.

All three of the boys' eyes were lingering on the trio working in the kitchen, making breakfast. Hinata, wearing her regular black pants and her cream-colored coat with Shukaku resting on her shoulder, was pulling plates and dishes out of their respected cabinets while setting the table. Every once in awhile, she would go over to one of the burners and sample some of the food. Haku was busy slicing up some fruits for breakfast and chopping up some vegetables that his little brother needed. As for said little brother, Naruto was busy running back and forth, looking through the cabinets and refrigerator for anything he could find to make a descent meal while cooking what he already had. The blond looked cute running about in his knee length white shorts and orange shirt as he was busy cooking and boy did it smell good. The five foxes that were sitting or laying down at the edge of the kitchen seemed to agree, each of the whimpering and whining for free handouts, which they were given from one of the three cooks.

Sitting himself down at the breakfast bar with Sasuke, Arashi watched as his son moved around the kitchen. Checking things over and tasting them and if they were right, he would nod his head with a smile on his face. If something seemed to taste wrong to him, he would frown and go about adding more stuff -the Yondaime did not know what he was adding half the time- into it until he seemed satisfied with the taste. He watched in amusement and awe when the three of them moved around the kitchen all at once, all caring things and never once did they run into each other. It was as if they had done this everyday of their lives and before he knew it, the Hokage was standing in front of a neatly decorated table with a _lot_ of food spread across its surface.

Half the food he had no idea what it was, but he knew it sure smelt good. He did recognize some of the dishes, having had them when he visited other countries and eaten with them, and if he remembered them correctly, there was at least one or two dishes from each one of the Five Great Shinobi Nations and some from lesser nations as well. His mouth just watered looking at them and he would bet his position as Hokage that the rest of the group was having the same reaction. He was just about to sit down and eat when Suigetsu and Karin arrived, Sasuke having let them in when he sensed their presence coming.

"Aw, you're just in time for breakfast," the blond hair teen happy greeted the two, even though he never formally meet them. "Would you care to join us? We just have to wake the others up first before we can begin." Suigetsu, who had been salivating at the sight of such wonderfully looking food, happily agreed. Karin had as well, even if she still did not trust any of the three brothers yet. "Good, we have more than enough food to go around," Naruto chirped happily, before calling out over his shoulder with a gleam in his eyes, "Haku-niichan, could you _wake_ the rest of the household up? Just this once?"

Sighing, Haku shook his head, but complied anyways. "Water or ice?"

The rest of the group looked on in mild curiosity, wondering what was about to happen. For those that already knew, they braced themselves for the impact.

"How about both? Icy-water?" Nodding his head in agreement, Haku made the necessary hand seals and with a poof, a few Mizu bunshins of himself appeared before heading upstairs.

"What was that all about?" Karin asked, genuinely interested. Nonetheless, when she saw his sly smirk and evil glint in his eyes, she was not quite sure if she wanted to know, but he told them all anyways. It was for a prank.

"Are you crazy?" Suigetsu all but screamed. "Do you even know who is up there? The Demon of the Mist and the Legionary Slug Sannin! They'll kill you for sure! They'll kill all of us! Call them off! I want to live!" No sooner had those words left his mouth than four screams echoes throughout the Uchiha Manor. It seemed like they were all awake. And judging by the pounding feet, they were not happy at their wake up call. "We're all doomed," the swordsman stated, shrinking into his seat. Some of his body had even started to turn to water, ready to flee at a moments notice.

Tsunade, wearing her light green sleeping robe, drenched to the bone, was the first to come crashing downstairs, every curse word she had ever learn on the tip of her lips, ready to be used. Her mouth was running, but no words were coming out of her mouth when she saw three particular faces in crowded kitchen. Followed right behind her in a soaked purple robe, was Tsunade's assistant and daughter like figure and following her mentor, Shizune became paralyzed. And right after the medic-nins, the famous ex-Demon of the Mist came down, dripping wet in only a pair of cow-print pants. He too was stunned to stillness.

Juugo, Karin, and Suigetsu could not believe that just at the sight of them, the rampaging shinobi seemed to freeze up in shock. Is this what Sasuke had meant when he said they would find out tomorrow? Cause as it was, they were even more confused and had a lot more questions.

"Good morning, Obaa-chan. Good morning Auntie Shizune. Good morning Zabuza-ojisan," the three Uzumaki siblings said in unison, just as they had done as children when they were little.

It was just at this time that Uchiha Obito, who was also dripping wet but seemed to be still half-asleep, came down the stairs, only to be blocked by the group of paralyzed shinobi. Looking around them, the Uchiha immediately woke up fully and smiled brightly, totally missing the rest of the shellshock looks coming from Sasuke's teammates.

"Hey, look, the rest of the Uzumaki clan is back."

I wanted to thank everyone for being pateint and those that reviewed. And, to make up for not posting last month, I'm going to try -and I will suceeded, I just have to believe in myself- to get another chapter up next week! Thank you have a wonderful day/night.

**_Shi no Tenshi 902_**


	29. Flirting, a Date, & the Wedding

See, I say I would hve his chapter out within the week and I mad good on my promise!

* * *

Naruto was sitting comfortable underneath an oak tree in one of the training grounds with Kyuubi curled up to his side, lightly snoring while he slept. It was not that early in the day albeit the sun had yet to completely wake up and rise from the treetops covering Amaterasu's rays, leaving the Leaf Village a little chilly. The weather did not bother him though, it was actually nice out compared to the freezing snow in Rain Country him and his brothers had trekked through not long ago. But home was always nicer than any other place no matter what time of year. Even if they had only been back for three days, the blond was happier in Konohagakure.

The news of their return spread like a wildfire through during the dry season, only twice as fast. Everyone in the village knew of the Uzumakis return by midday, if even that, seeing the citizens all still remembered _that _day five years ago. They all remember how the blond haired genin had summoned the _dead _Kyuubi no Kitsune and had fought off the Hachibi no Orochi from destroying their village. How the brave young genin had fought off the traitorous Uchiha Itachi. How the Ichibi no Tanuki vessel fought off and killed the S-classed missing nin, Deidara. How an ice user was able to take on and defeat the S-class Suna nuke-nin, Sasori. They all remember _that _day well and the Uzumaki brothers had become heroes during the invasion. Nonetheless, there were still those few who absolutely loathed the three brothers, seeing as the Uzumakis all had ties with demons. The narrow-minded villagers -and Council of Elders- could not accept what they could never understand. Thankfully, the majority of the people respected them.

Even those that did not like the Uzumaki brothers could not show their blatant disrespect. The fact Gaara's real siblings, one of which was the Kazekage of Sunagakure, had come down to see him and the rest of their extended family through the Sabaku turned Uzumaki brother, played a big part in that. Also, there was the fact a certain Demon and female Sannin who were both known for their tempers played a big part as well. But the cherry on top was the event which happened on the Uzumakis second day after being back. The day where the Yondaime Hokage had revealed to the whole village -and the conniving council members- that Uzumaki Naruto's real name was Uzumaki-Kazama Naruto.

His son.

That had shut a lot of people up.

Since then, everything seemed to change in the village -just like it had done five years ago- but this time, it was different. This time, instead of hardship, dullness, and a gloomy village, the return of the Uzumakis brought about a happy, hopeful atmosphere. The people who had never even meet the blond and his brothers were even affected. The sun had returned, brightening the whole village. It seemed like a heavy weight had finally been lifted off of the village's shoulders and everything was peaceful again.

"PERVERT! GET YOUR FILTHY ASS HANDS OFF OF _MY **ASS**_!"

The sound of skin meeting skin rang out throughout Konoha before the ground seemed to give a little jump, as if it had been startled. However, Naruto remained perfectly still while Kyuubi did not even flinch in his sleep, neither did the two move when a body come crashing down just a few feet in front of them. A groan of pain could be heard from inside the deep crater.

"You know Ero-sennin, I would have thought you would have learned not to peek inside the bathing houses while Obaa-chan is in there in the years I was gone," Naruto stated simply as he stood up and walked over. Not even looking in the hole, the Lord of Foxes reached in and pulled the twitching body up with no effort before tossing Jiraiya over towards Kyuubi. The kitsune, not even opening his eyes, plucked the man from out of the air with one of his tails and set him down next to him. The Toad Sannin made a funny sound, all the free flying was not doing good with his head.

"Kami-sama, why must you make the world spin around me? That is very mean of you," Jiraiya mumbled, almost sounding like he was drunk. Naruto just raised an eyebrow at his comment before going over to the elder man and slightly poking him with his index finger. The small transfer of motion cause the man to fall on his side and lay there passed out.

"Great, he's unconscious, now what do I do?" the blond groaned, running his hand through his blond hair as he looked down at the man in worry. However, the worry was not for the man's health. No, Naruto was more concerned about his test. The old pervert was supposed to be his examiner and judge what rank he was at and what field he should be placed in. His brothers had both taken their test the previous day and both had received the rank of ANBU. Haku had been placed in the hunter nin division along side Neji and Gaara was a bit harder to place. After a little more testing, during the time Naruto's test was originally supposed to take place, Jiraiya and him had come to the conclusion that it was best if he were to join SEED, Shikamaru could always make use of his abilities. It was because of all the extra time taken up from Gaara that Naruto's turn was postponed until today, but seeing how the Toad Hermit was knocked out, it looked like the blond had to wait a little longer.

Giving a small pout unconsciously, the Lord of Foxes plopped down on the ground before lying back down with his hands behind his head. Cloud gazing was always a good way to relax, while, at least that was what Shikamaru always did and he seemed permanently untroubled. Then again, he was also one of the laziest people the blond knew of. Since he had nothing better to do, Naruto decided he would take nap while he waited for the pervert to wake up. He did not get the option.

"Hello there, would you mind telling me about yourself? Like your dreams, your ambition, where you live?" a voice watery smooth voice stated, disturbing Naruto's nap. Pushing himself up, the confused blond looked towards the voice to see one of the many new people he had met in the past few days -he just could not remember what his name was- standing close to him. Seeing that he had gotten the younger one's attention, the older man smirked and an unknown glint of something crawled into his eyes.

"Excuse me?" Naruto asked as his eyes narrowed, appalled and not believing what this guy was saying. He could obviously tell the man was hitting on him, but he was not doing a good job at it. He was being too forward and impression he left on the blond was not a good one at all. Kyuubi seemed to come to his own conclusion of the unidentified man; the result was a growl which had risen in the kitsune's throat and the posture of one about to lunge at an enemy. "What did you just say?"

"I was wondering why a sweet little blond like yourself was here all alone, defenseless. Don't you know a war is on the verge of breaking out?" the man asked, walking closer to the blond, not heeding the warning signs of the growls which were increasing in volume. Nevertheless, before either the fox or his master could do anything about it, a Suiton water blast hit the man, sending him flying back a few feet and crashing into a boulder. A knocked out. The weird thing was -at least to the two conscious being in the in the clearing- was that the water surrounding him started to move and form a person.

"Ow, that hurt," the other teen mumbled, rubbing his head slightly as he stood up. Looking down at the person, the water-man grinned slightly before kicking him in the side, hard. His grins seemed to grow bigger when he heard the man groan in pain. "But it was well worth it, ROOT scum." Turning around, the man, for the first time, noticed there was someone else in the clearing other than Sai and him. Blinking a few time, the swordsman looked at the blond before grinning and rubbing the back of his head again. He had been caught and if Danzo got a hold of him attacking one of his ANBU, he was as good as executed. "You didn't see that, did you?"

"See what?" the blond asked innocently, a grinning matching his own spread across the teen's face. It was right then and there that the swordsman decided he definitely like the blond enigma. "Suigetsu was it?" Naruto asked, catching the other off guard that he actually remembered his name.

"Yea, that's me," the man confirmed, wondering what the blond wanted.

"Wanna spar?"

"Sure."

* * *

Four hours later, Suigetsu walked home from the hospital very bloody and bruised and along the way, he decided never to spar with Naruto again. Not as long as he could help it. Actually, it was not the actually sparring with Naruto he had any trouble with. The blue-eyed teen stuck to the rules they had set -taijutsu only- and had not beaten him. Neither had he won, the two had called it quits when Jiraiya, who had apparently been awake for most of their match, had declared that Naruto, with his taijutsu skills alone could become a jounin easily. The Sannin had then proceeded to say that he was going to recommend the teen be placed in the ANBU. And to celebrate with the blond, Suigetsu, being the gentleman he was, took the other out of lunch.

He could not deny he had a wonderful time with the blond, but after they parted ways, the swordsman ran in to his ANBU captain. One of which did not seem too happy and dragged him to the closest training field where they promptly had a sparing match of their own. It was only afterwards Suigetsu had a _small _sneaking suspicion Sasuke like the Uzumaki-Kazama. But only because the Uchiha had let it slip he would castrate his sorry ass if he tried anything with the blond. Which is was what gave him his small insightfully opinion and it had nothing to do with the fact he had seen his captain trailing the blond teen and his fox all day. Nor was it because of Sasuke almost killing Sai when he was hitting on Naruto. Nope, it had nothing to do with that.

The only good thing that happened to him during his otherwise painful day was Suigetsu now had something he could hold over Karin's head. The lovesick girl would just _love_ to hear about this. Her precious ideal was gay.

* * *

Across town, before he could help himself, Sasuke let out a sneeze, hoping upon hope his prey had not heard the noise.

"Sasuke, what are you doing up there?" Naruto asked looking up at the top of the small shop the raven was currently sitting on. It had been the perfect place to watch Naruto, Kyuubi, and Sakura, who had dragged the blond shopping with her to catch-up on everything they had missed out on, as they walked down the shopping district.

"Yes Sasuke, why _are _you up there?" Sakura asked, a gleam in her eyes and her all knowing look. She knew, oh Kami-sama she knew exactly why he was there.

Seeing no use in hiding anymore, as he had been caught, the ANBU captain jumped down from the roof to land right in front of the trio. "Hiding," Sasuke answered, wishing his blond would leave it there. Sadly, irony was against him at that point in time.

"From who?" the angelic teen asked, tilting his head to the side like a curious fox. The look alone almost made the Uchiha answered him truthfully, but at the last second, he held back form saying 'you' and changed it to fangirls. Nodding in understanding, Naruto smiled apologetically at the raven. "I see, so they are still after you after all these years?"

"You have no idea," the raven grumbled, thinking about the last few Valentines days and how his house was full of useless presents from all the girls who were trying to capture the last Uchiha's heart. Just thinking about it sent a twitch to his eye.

"You know, if you would just date some_one_, then they'd leave you alone," Sakura said in a matter-o-factly tone of voice. She did not miss the way Sasuke sent a glare her way, promising her a painful death if she said anymore; neither did she miss the light blush that stained her other ex-teammate's tanned skin. Suddenly a thought struck her, and the pink haired woman yelped out in alarm, making her two teammates very alert, wondering what could have possible cause the problem. "Oh no, I forgot I told Lee I was going to meet him for an early dinner. Kuso, sorry guys, I got to go!"

With that said the girl sprinted off in order to find her lover and left the two Soul Mates alone. Kyuubi had even disappeared, unnoticed to them and when Naruto did notice, a soft blush spread across his cheeks once again. At all cost the blond tried not to look at the raven, in fear his blush would worsen if he did. The two, left in an awkward state, began walking down the street towards the housing districts. Since the Uzumakis arrival, Sasuke and Naruto had not been alone together once, there had always been someone else there with them and now they were alone; neither of them were quite sure what to do.

Naruto was too embarrassed to really say anything, his thoughts keep winding back to the kiss he gave the other right before he went to battle the Destroyer, and Sasuke was not sure what to say. Yet, just being in each other's presents seemed to calm them down. Neither of them noticed how late it had gotten since they parted ways with Sakura, but seeing as the sun was going down, it had been a long time. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the two reached the Kazama clan residence where the Uzumaki bothers had been staying until they got a house of their own.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye for the night," Naruto said hesitantly, standing in the doorway. A pair of chapped lips had covered his own equally chapped lips and moved across the surface. A gasp of surprise went through him when a soft tongue ran across his bottom lip and as any normal shinobi would when they saw an opening, Sasuke took it. His tongue darted into the Pure One's mouth, exploring the uncharted territory and marking it as his own.

Pouring out all the passion inside of him that had been restrained for the last few years, Sasuke could not help himself. He wanted this, needed this, so badly it hurt. After years of worrying, thinking his brother had finally lain claim to what was supposed to be _his_, Sasuke could not hold back. He just let it all pour out into one kiss. It just felt so good, so right, he could not stop. And when he did, he was looking into the most beautiful pair of unique blue eyes glazed over from their kiss. A small smirk played along his month knowing he was the one to cause such a powerful shinobi to turn into a pile of mush, but the Lord of Foxes could do the same to him as well.

"I like you too," the Uchiha whispered into the Uzumaki's ear before vanishing into the night.

Snapping back to his senses, Naruto turned around and called out to the only presence that he could feel in the house. "Otou-sama, I'm home."

Sasuke watched from his hidden spot up in the tree as the blond bounced happily into his father's house. Once he was sure the Uzumaki-Kazama was inside of his own home, the Uchiha truly disappeared from the area, only to reappear at the Uchiha clan's compound. An aura of content happiness rolling off of Sasuke when he arrived, one of which that did not go unnoticed by his cousin.

"What did you do, Sasuke? And for Kami-sama's sake, please don't tell me if it is any content over an X rating. I do not want to hear about your sexual life, I hear enough of Gai and Rin's sex life as is from Rin," Obito asked jokingly, knowing for a fact that the younger raven had done nothing remotely sexual in years, not since his accidental kiss.

"Nothing like that. Do you think Haku and Gaara would let me live if I did anything like that to Naruto?" Sasuke asked seriously, but the happy aura around him never wavered. The Uchiha did not miss the way that his cousin almost chocked on his own saliva at the mention of the older Uzumaki brothers. "Nope, I just got a kiss and a possible boyfriend."

"You mean Uzumaki-Kazama Naruto?" the older Uchiha asked, his eyes nearly bugged out of his eye-sockets. "But I thought that was just a childhood crush! Oh man, I cannot wait to see Zabuza's reaction when he finds out."

Rolling his eyes at the childish attics of the older man, Sasuke just smirked. "He already knows."

"What?!" Obito cried out, not out of surprise, but sorrow that he missed Zabuza's reaction to his littlest nephew having Sasuke as a boyfriend. "That's not fair, I missed it!"

"Hey, don't complain to me, it's not my fault," the younger Uchiha replied, his eye twitching slightly from his cousin's childish behavior. However, the raven's next words lacked the annoyance that his previous words held. "Ano, Obito, I want to ask Naruto out -on a proper date- but I'm not sure what I should do exactly. I was wondering if you could maybe give me some adv-ittai!"

The words were not even given the time to leave his mouth before his older cousin was dragging him upstairs and into a bright cheerful room. Obito's room. That was where the real torture began.

* * *

Three more weeks flew by before Sasuke even got the chance to actually try asking Naruto out on a date. An ill planned attack on Konohagakure had the village in a scrabble trying to clear out the villagers while the shinobi provided protection. There were some casualties and injured villagers because of the abruptness of the attack, but none of the shinobi died. Some got injured; yes that was true, but nothing too serious. Buildings were destroyed because of the bombs that had been set off and parts of the wooden gate were smoldering with hot coals, but that was as far at the damage went.

The shinobi which had attacked, a platoon of Iwa shinobi, had wondered into Konoha territory by complete accident. The leader of the platoon had an old grudge on Konohagakure for the last Great Shinobi War and decided it would be best to just attack. Nonetheless, his ill preparing and total lack of leadership abilities had everything coming apart. That, and there was the fact they had attack at the exact time of one Haruno Sakura's bridal shower. That did not end well. The attack only lasted one day and well into that night, but it was taken care of by morning.

After all of the enemy shinobi had been captured and were resting quite uncomfortable in the cells of SEED's headquarters, the village had to begin to clean up after the would-be-invasion and rebuild what had been destroyed. Academy students and retired veterans, who could work, went about cleaning up the streets and less damaged areas. Genin and chunnin had to help move the rubble and salvage anything they could from the buildings that had been totally demolished. This left the jounin and the few ANBU that could be spared to rebuild the structures using ninjutsu. Even citizens helped out where they could.

Finally, two weeks after the attack, the village was once again in a semi-peaceful state. Now, it was almost time for Sasuke to ask Naruto on a date. Obito had helped him -well what the crazy eccentric Uchiha had called help anyways- and so had others. Kakashi had smiled brightly, well it was assumed he smiled brightly, and told him that he could do it, all the while slipping the most recent addition of the Icha Icha series into his hands. Zabuza had taken him out to the bar and had promptly got himself wasted leaving Sasuke to drag his ass home. Tsunade had cornered him, bond him up in medical tape, dragged his ass to the hospital, and then went into a very detailed explanation on how two males had sex. After which, Shizune had given the highly embarrassed Uchiha a bottle of lube and some condoms.

In the end, the person he thought was going to be the worst person to inform of his decision had the most normal of reactions. Sasuke, before he took the Uzumaki-Kazama out, had formally asked his father's permission to court the blond and instead of the Yondaime demoting him or flinging him into Ibiki's care, he smiled. Kazama Arashi smiled at him, and promised if he broke his son's heart, he would not be able to run fast or far enough to get away before giving the ANBU captain a pat on the head and a wave out the door.

This just left one more thing on his to do list before the raven could finally ask his blond haired mortal Tenshi out on a date. He had to confront said blond haired mortal Tenshi's brothers. One a container of the Ichibi no Shukaku and the other a descendant of an Ice Goddess, both highly overprotective of their little brother. It was a fact, Uchiha Sasuke was doomed.

"You wanted to see us Sasuke-kun?" a friendly, icy, voice asked, snapping Sasuke out of his thoughts. Looking up, the Uchiha watched as Haku and Gaara, with a small Ichibi no Tanuki on his should, walk into the clearing. The latter glaring at him as if he was the Destroyer himself and the former with his always friendly smile on his face.

"Hai, Haku-san," the raven said, being as polite as possible while trying to keep his nerves down. "And thank you both for coming."

"Just get on with it Uchiha, I don't have all day and Hinata-chan is waiting for me," Gaara snapped out irritated, while Shukaku's fur bristled slightly at his container's foul mood. The bonding processes between him and his Soul Mate had already started and being away from her at the moment was very vexing. He was lashing out at everyone, including the demon within him. Nonetheless, the tanuki also understood what the redhead was going through, living in his body and knowing how the whole bonding process started.

"I too have something to do," Haku stated more politely than his brother. "Neji-kun is helping me with my Hunter nin training. So if you would, could you please make this quick?"

"Ahh, okay," Sasuke replied, a little thrown off by the two Uzumakis' reaction. Usually the two were all for making sure he was staying away from Naruto, so this really threw him for a loop. Taking a deep breath, the Uchiha gathered his nerves and began. "With your consent, I would like to properly court Uzumaki-Kazama Naruto."

Silence engulf the trio, the two Uzumakis not speaking and the raven waiting with baited breath for them to answer.

"Fine," the redhead finally answered.

"Huh?" the shock from the raven tried to manifest itself in the words, but it was not succeeding.

Trying to hide his slight chuckling, the burnet covered his mouth with his hand. "What Ani means is that you have our permission to date our Otouto. And before you even ask, the only reason we are letting you anywhere near Naru-chan is because you've passed our test."

"Test?" the Uchiha asked, the confusion never leaving him. This conversation was taking turns that he never thought was possible. He was all prepared for having the crap beat out of him or even windup dead. Yet, he was not expecting this. "What test?"

"You passed the test and you earned our respect, enough said," Gaara bit out. "Now if there is nothing else you want, we're leaving."

Sasuke could only nod his head and watch the two's retreating backs. He had just gotten permission to date one Uzumaki-Kazama Naruto from Uzumaki Sabaku Gaara and Uzumaki Momochi Haku with no real effort. He had even come out of it with out a scratch on his being, leaving him in a slight shock state. The raven slightly wondered if he was caught up in a genjutsu but brushed that thought aside because his sharingan -even if it was deactivated- would pick up on it. So all of this must be true. That left only one thing to do.

"I have to go find Naruto," Sasuke said out loud to himself with a wayward smirk on his face. The Uchiha set out on a new self given mission in mind.

Heading out of the clearing and back into town, the raven casually paced himself. He did not even bother to look where he was going, but it was not something he needed to worry about and just closed his eyes. After all, Sasuke had the layout of Konohagakure memorized and he did not need to think to get from one place to another. There was also the fact that people tended to stay out of his way when he was walking and if they did not notice him, he would subconsciously notice their chakra signatures and move out of their way. There was nothing to worry about.

"Ompf," a strange grunt sound emerged from Sasuke's lips as he turned the corner and crashed into someone. Irony seemed to be like him today.

"Eh, sorry, sorry," a familiar voice apologized to the raven, causing his eyes to snap open and look at the blond haired angel in front of him. Okay, so maybe irony was not against him today and was actually helping him. "I wasn't watching where I was going."

"It's okay Naruto," the Uchiha interrupted the smaller teen, which made him realize exactly who he had run into. "I was actually going to look for you."

"Me?" Naruto asked, his fox like habit of tilting his head to the side when curious kicked and Sasuke swore that someday that look would be the death of him. Or just cause him to finally jump the blond and no one could blame him if he did. "Whatever for?"

"Wel-l," the Uchiha drawled out quite unlike himself as he watched the blond fidget under his gaze. "I was wondering, if you didn't have anything planned for tonight, would you like to go out and have dinner with me?"

"Sure, I would like that," the blond said smiling brightly. "Actually, once I finish dropping these off at Sakura's house, I'll be free. Though, I'll have to stop by my Otou-sama's house as well, if you want, I can meet up with you someplace."

For the first time, Sasuke noticed the bundle of scrolls within the blond's arms which looked rather heavy. Shaking his head, the raven smiled slightly at his Soul Mate. "No, it's okay, I'll pick you up at Arashi-sensei's house."

"That's fine," the Lord of Foxes stated, the smile never leaving his face. "Ja ne."

However, before he could get far, Sasuke pulled the shorter teen back with a gleam in his eyes. "It's a date then," the raven whispered huskily into his ear, sending a shiver down Naruto's spine right before their lips meet for a brief second. "Ja ne, Naru-chan."

And with that, the Uchiha simply disappeared, leaving a blushing blond in his wake.

* * *

An hour or so later, Sasuke showed up in front of the Kazama household, twitching slightly. He decided -since this was their first date and they never planned on going anywhere real special- wearing casual clothes was for the best. However, it could not be something too casual as Sakura scold him. Sasuke had to wonder why she was over at his house in the first place, seeing as Naruto had just gone over to her house, but the pink haired girl simply told him to mind his own business and change his clothing yet again.

The pink haired teen's pushiness being the reason why the Uchiha now stood in front of the door to the Yondaime's house wearing some old black hakama and a white haoiri top with the Uchiha emblem on back and a gray sash keeping it closed. The only shinobi related attire he was wearing where his ninja sandals, even his hitai-ate was missing. Nonetheless, it did not mean that he had no weapons. No, it just meant that they were well concealed on his person and could not be seen.

When the door opened after he knocked, Sasuke was greeted with the sight of his old sensei. "Konban-wa, Arashi-sensei," the Uchiha greeted the Yondaime' formally while even giving a slight bow. He was taking the man's only son out on the teen's first date after all, and he thought it would be for the best if he was on his finest behavior. "I'm here to pick up Naruto for our date."

"I know," Arashi said with a sadden grin on his face. A grin Sasuke could not blame the man for, he just had gotten his son back and now he had to share him with the Uchiha. Yet Arashi was very understanding too and did not hold the teen back. "He's finishing up with a shower, so you'll have to wait. He should be right down. You can take a seat in the living room to wait, if you want," the Yondaime offered civilly.

Before the Uchiha could take the Hokage up on his offer, he was stopped. "That's okay Otou-sama; I'm already to go if Sasuke is."

The raven was in his own little world at the moment and did not completely hear the younger blond's word, but he definitely saw the mortal Tenshi. And he unquestionably looked like an angel in his eyes at the moment. The blond was not wearing anything extravagant, it was simple and elegant. His outfit consisted of plain redwood color pants with black sandals and a dusty orange yukata like top. He too did not wear any shinobi gear, but a green gem necklace did wrap around his slender neck.

"Yeah, let's go," Sasuke said finally snapping out of his demeanor. "Goodbye Arashi-sensei, I promise to bring Naruto back safe and sound."

"Bye Otou-sama," Naruto stated, grabbing the Uchiha's hand and proceeded to pull him out the door.

"Ja matta," the worried, but happy father replied. "Have a good time. Oh, and Sasuke, remembered what we talked about, even if you start running now, you won't be able to get far enough away."

Gulping slightly, the raven nodded his head and let his Soul Mate pull him out the door. Once outside and with no overprotective family members were around, Sasuke was able to relax and even laced his fingers with the blond still holding his hand.

"So, where are we going, Sasuke?" Naruto asked innocently after they had been walking out of the housing districted where his father lived.

"I was thinking the new foreign restaurant, the one that just opened up, Saiyuki, if that's okay with you," the Uchiha answered, watching as his date's face lit up. He remembered sometime back, when they had passed by the restaurant and Naruto mentioned that he would like to go there one day. That day just happened to be today.

"I'd like that, I'd like that very much," the blond stated smiling as the two headed towards the shopping district. They spent the ten minute walk talking about this and that, Sasuke telling some of the stories he had acquired being the leader of the _Gods of the Night_ while Naruto reciprocated with some of the stories he had gained during their time apart. Nonetheless, even as they told their tales, neither one of the mentioned anything about Itachi, such was an unspoken taboo. Naruto was so enthralled in one of the more epic stories his Soul Mate was bringing to life that he did not even realize they had entered the restaurant until one of the waiters greeted them.

"Hello and welcome to Saiyuki, how can I help you?" asked a man with brown hair falling into his green eyes in a way that completely covered his right eye.

"A table for two, please," Sasuke answered the man just ask politely. The brunet nodded his head and grabbed two menus before leading the couple towards a relatively secluded spot.

Once they were both seated across from each other, the man handed each of them a menu. "Thank you for coming to Saiyuki, I'm Hakkai and due to our lack of staff members tonight, I'll be your waiter. I'm sorry if this causes any inconvenience for you, sirs," the waiter said, sounding very sincere all the way through. "Is there anything I could get you to drink at the moment, or would you like time to look over the menu?"

"Now's fine," Naruto stated, his eyes skimming the menu over. "I'd like a cup of your Dragon Oolong Tea, please."

"Make that a kettle and bring out two cups," Sasuke added on.

"Right away sirs," Hakkai replied not bothering writing the order down. He had worked here long enough that he had become accustomed to memorizing the customers' order and retell them to Gojyo, one of the cook. Hopefully, Gojyo would not start any fights tonight with Goku, one of the busboys, they were already shorthanded as it was and if anything else happened, Genjo Sanzo, the owner of Saiyuki, would fire them both. It did not help that tonight -of all nights- the ANBU captain of the _Gods of the Night_ had decided to stop at Saiyuki and eat, bring along with him the Hokage's son. Hakkai did not lack common sense; he knew who the two were the first moment they walked in the door.

He chose to keep his mouth shut and not said anything because he had the feeling that the two were trying not to gain any attention. It had not mattered to Hakkai that two of the most predominate figures in Konohagakure were dinning there tonight, that Saiyuki's popularity could -and would have- sky rocketed if people saw them dinning there. That was why the brunet had put them in the back, away from many of the other customers, because he had a feeling that it was the best thing to do, even when he could get more customers if he had moved them someplace more noticeable. He had even chose to serve as their waiter himself -sure they were short on staff, but not short enough to have the host act as a waiter- to make sure none of the other waiters or waitresses bothered the two.

So throughout their meal, Hakkai made personally sure that no one bothered them. The only people who knew they were there other than himself were Goku and Gojyo. He would tell Sanzo when the man arrived, he was the owner after all and he always wanted to know what went on in his restaurant. The hard part was keeping his two friends and fellow co-workers quiet about the two's presences. They both were acting as if the two males were gods themselves for Kami-sama's sake!

As Hakkai tried to keep their dinner normal without even them knowing, Naruto complemented the dish he had ordered, mentioning how he would like to learn some of the recipes, and Sasuke had to agree that the food was good as well. Yet, in his opinion, nothing could beat the blond's cooking. He just did not mention that fact out loud, knowing that the Lord of Foxes would just become embarrassed. Instead, the two just talked throughout dinner. It may not have been romantic date to anyone else, but being shinobi and at the verge of war, it was just perfect for them. The date was peaceful and calm, something they had not been subjected to in a long time. There was always something going on and they did not see much of each other, but here, they were all alone and could enjoy each other's company. Just the two of them.

"Here's your bill sir," the waiter happily voiced out, giving Sasuke the bill as Naruto finished he desert. Thanking the man, the Uchiha looked over the bill and looked it over only to have his eyebrows rose in mild shock. For, instead of having an amount due, there was only a little note. One address to him by his three ancestors.

__

Dear Sasuke,

Good job on finally getting a date with your Soul Mate, though it did take a lot of time. As your guardians of sort, we're just making sure everything goes perfect for you and Naruto-chan, hopefully all goes well. We have already taken care of your bill, but just a little suggestion, you might want to go visit your old training grounds. It'll be worthwhile on your date. Have fun.

From your

Sun, Moon, and Storm.

Wondering what the three deities had planned, Sasuke shook it off, knowing that the trio was always looking over the Uchiha clan -the Destroyer not included- and the ones they loved. They were only trying to help and he trusted them. So once they were finally finished, he suggested to his date that they take a walk seeing as it was still pretty early and his father was not expecting him home yet. The blond agreed and the two left the restaurant, heading towards Team 7's old meeting place. In particular, the bridge.

Hakkai watched, along with Goku and Gojyo, the couple left, slightly wondering how those three people who had paid for them even knew that the two were there. The burnet had thought he had kept their presences hidden from everyone else, but apparently not. And then there was that fact the taller of the two identical looking women had left him with a very confusing departing remark. Something about the sun repaying him for his kindness and generosity before thrusting a small worn deerskin satchel in his hand.

Shrugging his shoulder, the brunet looked down at the small deerskin sack in his hands untied the drawstrings which keep it close before pouring the contents out into his right hand. "Hey, Gojyo, Goku, you remember how we planned to take a journey to the west with Sanzo when we earned enough money working here?"

"Yea, what about it?" Gojyo asked, looking over at his friend, yet, upon seeing what was in the man's hands, the cigarette in his mouth fell dully to the floor. "Sweat Merciful Goddess!"

"What, what is it?" Goku asked at the cook's sudden shock, looking at the glittering rocks. He did not know what they were and therefore, could not understand that what Hakkai was holding some of the rarest precious stones around. Sunstones and enough of them to make him rich for the rest of five lifetimes.

"Don't spend it all in one place now," a soft female voice chimed, causing the three men to look around, but no one was there. At least they did not see anyone, but Amaterasu was there, she stayed long enough to see the kind young man open her present before disappearing. After all, she still had to be there for her descendant after all. Thankfully, she arrived just in time, since the two Soul Mates were just arriving themselves. She watched from the side lines, her brother and sister right next to her, as Naruto walked along the bridge before stopping in the middle to lean on the side railing overlooking the clear night sky and the rising moon reflecting in the water below.

"It so beautiful and peaceful tonight," the mortal Tenshi commented in a serene stated.

"Hn," the raven responded, coming up behind the blond and wrapping his arms loosely around the shorter teen's shoulders. His head resting next to his date's right ear, so when he next spoke, his breath gently caressed the flesh below. "But you're more beautiful," Sasuke whispered softly, taking great pleasure when he felt the other shiver slightly while a dusty pink blush powdered his cheeks. Naruto seemed to get embarrassed easy, but the Uchiha only told him the truth. To him, the Uzumaki-Kazama was the most beautiful thing in the world.

"Sasuke," Naruto all but moaned out his name, as lips descended on to his own. The Uchiha made complete sure that his tongue brushed along the blond's lower lips, just to taste them. However, when Naruto's lips parted, he was not going to let the chance slip by and his tongue quickly darted into the pure mouth. He explored the territory once again, and making sure Naruto understood. He was his and only his. Once the need for air became an issue, it was then they pulled apart, leaving Naruto breathless and Sasuke with as sated smirk on his face.

The couple just stood there of awhile, simply basking in each other's presences and the serenity that stood around. When a bright light flashed by, the two finally moved. The light had startled the duo; it did not put them on alert when more and more of the same flashed flew by. Instead, they watched the strikes of brightness in the night sky. Meteor showers were not often, but they were the most stunning features which were beyond human control -though it seemed that some gods and goddesses could control them if they felt the need to- and watching them with one's Soul Mate was even better.

* * *

Sakura and Lee's wedding day finally came and coincidentally enough, it was the day after Sasuke and Naruto's first date. The full Rookie 9 and all their friends were in full swing to make sure their wedding would be one to remember. Everyone had his or her own job, just touching things up really, before the wedding could begin. Ino and her family were making last minute adjustments to the flower decorations, Chouji and his family was setting up the food for reception with the Naras' help, and the others were helping out where they could.

So, when the clock struck three, the area that the third stage of the Chunnin Exams resided in -which had been transformed for the wedding- was full of friends and family alike dressed in their best clothing as the ceremony began. Lee, who was wearing a Chinese style black suit, stood fidgeting as the wedding began. The man himself did not know if he felt relieved or even more frighten when the bridesmaids and their escorts started to walk down the aisle. However, when Sakura came walking out with Sasuke by her side -her father had died the year before and since Arashi was marrying them Sakura asked Sasuke be the one to give her away- he could not help but settle down.

His cherry blossom looked gorgeous wearing a Chinese style white dress with gold outlining to complement her outfit and her hair held up on top of her head. There were no words to describe how Lee felt and seeing the way she smiled at him, the young taijutsu master could not help but feel his heart skip a beat or twenty. The rest of the ceremony seemed like a blur him, he remembered hearing the Hokage's voice, he remembered his best man, Naruto, giving him the ring, and he remembered giving his wife a kiss in front of everyone, but other than that, it was all a blur. Now, he was happy and having the time of his life at the reception, though no one let him near the drinks.

"Hey Lee, may I cut in," Naruto asked smiling as he took Sakura's hand when her husband gave him the okay. In no time at all they were spinning around the dance floor with the rest of the guests. "So how does it fell to be married to Lee?"

A slight blush crossed his ex-teammate's face, but the blond knew it was not out of embarrassment. Far from it. "Wonderful, I've waited so long that I can't believe we're finally married. It's just so surreal at time that I think I'll wake up any minute now from a dream. Something I don't want to happen."

"Well, that's good, because it won't," Naruto reassured his pink haired friend. "Sakura, you're not dreaming, trust me on this one, and even if you don't, I could always get Tsunade-baachan to pinch you. That would show you are indeed awake," the Lord of the Foxes stated in all seriousness, however, the mischief in his eyes said otherwise.

Laughing at her friend's attempted to cheer her up, Sakura shook her head. "I believe you, but just because I have a fear of your grandmother's strength."

"Me too," the blond added on. "With justifiable reasons to be, I assure you of that!"

Giggling again at his antics, the newly wedded wife could not help but smile. This truly was a magnificent day. "So where's Sasuke? I would have thought he would have commandeered all of your time."

"Oh, his teammate, Karin-san, dragged him out to dance with her," a hint of a sad tone in the blond's voice made Sakura feel a bit saddened as well. That girl just did not know when to quiet and leave well enough alone.

"She's still denying that Sasuke's gay, huh?" the ANBU Torture and Interrogation's specialist asked, a plan forming in her mind if the redhead teen did not stop pursuing the Uchiha soon. She was sure Ino would like to help her as well; after all, the blonde haired girl never did like Karin to begin with.

Knowing the subject was not the best one to be having at Sakura's wedding -much less with Sakura herself during her wedding- Naruto decided it was time to change topics. The mischievous glint back in his eyes. "So what are you and Lee going to do for your honeymoon?"

Across the room, Sasuke had just managed to get away from Karin and sit down at one of the tables which had been set up for the guests to sit and eat at or just lounge about. He made sure to choose a table that was further back so he could somewhat hide from his redhead subordinate and get to spend time with Naruto. Yet, luck was not on his side, for his Soul Mate was currently dancing with their ex-teammate and for some reason, her face seemed to match the color of her hair. Shaking off his disappointment, the Uchiha looked around.

There were a lot of people there, but there were only a few people he could say he really knew personally. Of course there was Sakura and Naruto dancing together, that was an obvious fact. Then there was Lee dancing with Ino, seeing as her long time boyfriend was currently eating at the buffet. Jiraiya and Tsunade were dancing on the dance floor as well as Shizune, though who she was dancing with, Sasuke did not know. Shikamaru was all but sleeping at one of the tables with the Kazekage sitting next to him looking utterly beautiful in her lavender dress, but utterly bored. Kankuro was already drunk, hitting on Tenten, who looked like she was restraining herself from beating the shit of him.

Shino and Kiba were currently in a one-sided heated discussion while Akamaru, Kyuubi, and the four spirit foxes were tumbling about in a playful brawl. Rin, Obito, Zabuza and Iruka were currently sitting at the same table talking to one another as Gai proclaimed that his eternal rival and he should have a dancing contest, though Kakashi was not listening. The others he knew were lost in the crowd of dancing bodies or the many tables other guests who were sitting while the talked and ate away. The rest were the people he held no interest at all, most of them were villagers, friends of Sakura's family she had to invite because of her mother's wishes. Others were just lower shinobi Sasuke really did not know nor care about in anyway. He was too caught up in wishing he could be the one dancing with Naruto.

"You know you could always go over there and ask him for a dance yourself," his sensei's voice stated, as a thud was heard from a bottle of sake being placed down on the table. Sasuke gave a sigh, looking at the Hokage as he sat himself down at the same table, two sake cups in hand, something that held the Uchiha's questioning gaze. Catching the raven's line of sight, the Yondaime just smiled, filling both cups before handing his future son-in-law one. "Now, don't you dare say anything about you not being of age, as a shinobi, the drinking age is eighteen and as far as my records show, you are of age, so drink up."

Sasuke did not needed to be told twice and threw his head back, drinking all of the liquid in one go. He could feel the alcohol travel down his throat and into his stomach, not necessarily burn as other might describe the feeling, more like warming up his insides. The taste was lost upon him as the cup hit the table with a slight bang when the raven brought it back down, but it was filled right back up in a matter of seconds. That was gone in the same manors as the first. The third time his cup was filled, the young ANBU captain savored the alcohol and sipped at it.

"So, why aren't you out there dancing with my son?" Arashi asked, as he took a drink out of his own cup, his eyes flickering over to his mini replica who was now dancing with a laughing Temari and for once, the lazy genius of SEED look about ready to do something about it. Yet, judging by the twinkle in Naruto's eyes, that was exactly what he wanted the Nara to do.

"Karin got to me first and tried to force me to dance with her," the Uchiha said, his eyes slightly unfocused -not from the alcohol but from being lost in thoughts- as he took another sip. "By the time I detached myself from her; Naruto was already dancing and talking with Sakura, which I didn't want to interrupt the two. That's all there is to it."

"Other than hiding from Karin," the Kazama added on, his lips twitching into a slight smile that he quickly covered by finishing off his cup. Pouring himself his second round, Arashi pretended not to notice the glare being sent his way. "So why don't you ask him to dance now?"

Turning his gaze towards the dance floor, the Uchiha watched as the blond haired angel switched from dancing with Ino to dancing with Hinata while Gaara -who had to be _motivated _by the thought of sleeping on the couch- danced with Hanabi. "He seems to be having a good time as it is. Besides, he needs to catch up with everyone else. I know for a fact he hasn't gotten the chance to catch up with some of the others."

"I see," the Yondaime stated, watching over his son. "That is very thoughtful of you."

"Hn," the raven replied, not sure quite what to say to his sensei's comment. In stead, he changed the topic over to Arashi and what he had been doing in the last couple of days, since he had been swamped with paperwork with Sasuke adding some of his advice when he could. Their discussions was just about over, but not all the way, when Kakashi took a seat at their table, draping his arm over Sasuke's shoulders, with Obito taking a seat on one side of Arashi and Rin on the other side.

"You just missed it," Obito said, chuckling some, "Gai was crying over Lee, telling him how proud he is for finally getting married and the does and don'ts for becoming _a_ _man,_ as he put it. Sakura looked so humiliated, her face practically matched her hair color, before she hit a few pressure points, safely to say, Gai won't be able to say anything for awhile."

"It seems like our students are growing up so fast," Rin sighed out, her hand propping her head up as she watched Lee and Sakura dance solely on the dance floor. They looked so happy together as if it could last forever, and the med-nin hoped it did, for her student's sake.

"Yeah, Sakura's already married. Sasuke is now drinking," Kakashi said an evil glint in his eye as he took the raven's cup and downed it himself -without anyone seeing under his mask- which earned him a glare that could send anyone else to hell and back if he was not already used to it. "And he just had a date with our youngest student, which we want to hear all about."

"Which is not going to happen. He didn't even tell me and I'm his cousin," Obito said calmly, observing how Kakashi's demeanor never changed and he seemed to get an eviler look in his eyes. The scarecrow was up to something and the way he pulled himself closer to Sasuke's using his arm draped over the raven's shoulder to whisper something in his ear.

"Come on Sasuke, you can tell me," the Hatake spoke softly, so that only the youngest Uchiha could hear him. Something that was hard to do with other highly trained ninjas sitting around the table. "I promise not to tell sensei if you did anything to his son. You know you want to get it off your chest," the older man added jokingly.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed at the silver haired man's comment. He knew that Kakashi was only joking, but he had just insulted his dignity and he was not going to take it. Just as any male member of the Uchiha clan would be, he was a very prideful man and would not take such a comment. The only people that a male Uchiha had ever been know to have his pride be damned for, would be a female Uchiha, otherwise know as the wife.

"Obito, you know how you said that if Kakashi ever gave any of Team 7 some of his Icha Icha Paradise books, you would burn his?" the teen asked, feeling more than seeing his silver haired teacher stiffen and go slack jaw.

"Yeah," the older Uchiha asked, his voice hardening as he thought over exactly why his cousin was asking such a thing. He was only coming to one conclusion and he did not like what his mind was coming up with. "Why do you ask?"

"You won't!" the scarecrow hissed into his ear, but the smirk on his ex-student's face said otherwise.

"Well, guess what he got me for my birthday? And what his wedding gift to Sakura is?" Sasuke said, watching Obito's sharingan blazed to life as he nearly jumped over the table to tackle the man. The only reason he was not able to get anywhere, was because Arashi had grabbed a hold of him and held him back, telling the man that this was a wedding and not to make a scene. Something Kakashi was thankfully for. His thankfulness was short lived though. "And I'm pretty sure I saw a copy address to Naruto for his upcoming birthday lying in his apartment."

Kakashi paled at the words spoken and the killer intent surround the Hokage was not something to be messed with, but the reaction from Rin was the most surprising.

"Kakashi-kun, give my condolences to Iruka," the kunoichi sadly stated. Feeling a little brave, the silver haired man asked why and the sadistic grin that spread across her face made him wish he had done no such thing. "Because he's never going to partake in sexual intercourse ever again once I castrate you before use your balls as a chew toy for your dogs!"

Without a second thought, the Hatake ran for his life as if the devils of hell were on his heels. Sasuke sat there thinking he may have went a little too far, before deciding that was not the case and turned back to the sake. Pouring himself another cup full, the Uchiha leaned back on his chair and closed his eyes while he enjoyed the alcohol and the sounds of Kakashi's suffering. A weight settled on his lap as warm arms wrapped themselves around his neck.

"And what do you think you are doing?" a welcoming voice penetrated Sasuke's enjoyment.

"Just having a drink," the Uchiha said, drinking the rest of the sake still in his cup. One of the arms around his neck removed itself and the cup in his hand disappeared and was place down on the table with an audible clink before the arm returned itself around his neck.

"Not anymore." The weight disappeared from his lap and he was pulled up from his chair, which forced him to open his eyes as he was being pulled into the crowed. Really, he did not need to open his eyes; he could still maneuver able using his chakra sensing abilities, seeing Naruto turn back and give him a bright smile was all he really cared about. "Come on Sasuke, you owe me a dance."

"And I'll give you a dance, and a million more," Sasuke said, pulling the blond's body into his own as the started to dance around the dance floor. He vaguely noticed that Gaara and Hinata, Neji and Haku, and Sakura and Lee were dancing around them as well. "All you have to do is ask."

* * *

The day started to turn into night, and slowly people began to leave the reception in favor of going home during the day, since crossing the Forest of Death at night was not something many villagers dared to trek through. Many of the shinobi stayed to the end, to wish Sakura and Lee a good time on their honeymoon, which they were going to a small resort that was famous for their hot springs just a few miles to the north of Konohagakure. It was the rest of Rookie 9 and Team Gai that had stayed later to help clean up the mess that was made during the party, mostly from Kakashi, who was now recovering in the hospital.

However, it did not seem all the excitement for the day was over, seeing as Hinata fainted during the clean up. Gaara was by her side instantaneously, trying to wake her and make sure that she was alright, but he had to be pried away from her by Neji so that Haku could look her over. Physically, he could not find anything wrong with her and she woke up soon after. Nonetheless, Gaara being concerned for his Soul Mate's health decided that a med-nin should look her over, but he did not take her to the hospital. Instead, him and his brothers -who were there to support their brother and make sure Hinata was okay- took her straight to Tsunade. Sasuke and the others had wanted to go as well, but he stayed behind to finish cleaning up.

As for Gaara, he was pacing in front of the door Tsunade had take Hinata through once they explained to her what had happened. The sands around him were moving every which way in his irritation, yet he never took any notice. Nevertheless, as the minutes ticked by, the sands began to get more and more violent. Soon, mini dust-devils were swirling around on the floor. Neither of his brothers said anything; though Kyuubi was playfully batting his paw through one in his boredom.

"Calm down Ani, everything will turn out for the best," the Hyoton user said, trying to calm the boy as well.

"But there is something wrong with her! She fainted! You don't faint for no reason," Gaara retorted walking through one of the many mini dust-devils around him.

"She's going to be alright," Naruto stated, his eyes shining with an inner light, but it went unnoticed. "Nothing's bad happened to her."

"Naru-chan is right," Haku tried to reassure his brother as well. "I wasn't able to find anything physically wrong with her when I checked her over. So it cannot be that serious, if it was, I would have found it."

The demon container was about to say more, when the door to the room was thrown open with a bang. "GAARA!" Tsunade's voice rang out as she looked over at her redhead grandson, causing the little dust-devils to instantly die out. "Have I taught you noting?!"

Said grandson was ignoring his grandmother's sudden outburst that was very unlike her -seeing as she never yelled at her grandsons and seeing her yell at Gaara was very particular- and focused his attention on his Soul Mate. "How's Hinata? Is she alright?"

"She's fine, but she needs to be more careful," the Slug Sannin answered, knowing that she was not going to be able to have a talk with the redhead until he knew that his girlfriend was alright. "As for you, you're not going to be when I'm through with you! Do you know how this makes me feel? My grandson, a father, and he still isn't married yet! I thought I taught you to use safe sex so this won't happen. Now Hinata's pregnant-"

The rest of their grandmother's speech fell on deaf ears as Haku and Naruto, overjoyed at hearing the news, ran into the room to congratulate Hinata and see if they could feel the fetus's chakra yet. Both of the happy for their brother and the Hyuuga. Kyuubi on the other hand, since the dust-devils were gone and he could not play with them, sufficed with pawing at the Ichibi's vessel, who had fainted as soon as the word pregnant was spoken.

"Ani, you got to see this, Naru-chan says he can feel two different chakra signa-tures…" the last of Haku's sentence was finished lamely when he noticed Gaara's body on the floor with the red fox pawing at him as if testing if he was dead or not. "Ah, Hinata-chan, you might want to hold off on telling Ani that you're having twins. I don't think he could handle the shock at the moment."

* * *

Thank you for all that reviewed. As for the **_Saiyuki _**refrences, those were for **_Prince Krappy_** who gave me my first fanart -though it wasn't for this story, but **_Another World_**- and I had to put it as a thank you, so I hope you all enjoy. Though, I can finally say this story is coming to an end, only a few more chapters and I will be finished. I can't wait.

Oh, and I put a poll up in my profile asking which god/goddess my readers liked best. So, please stop by and vote. Please?

**_Shi no Tenshi 902_**


	30. No Moon, Darkness Reins

It was an hour till midnight and all of the villagers were asleep, those shinobi that were awake were already out on their missions, leaving Konohagakure peacefully and as quiet as any Village Hidden in the middle of a forest could be. It was because of the forest noises the sounds from two individuals went unnoticed. After all, Kyuubi was fox demon and Naruto was the Lord of Foxes, meaning that they were very good a blending in with the forest sounds. They welcomed the forest's life and the forest welcomed them, which was why Mother Nature was so willing to hide their presents.

At the moment, Naruto and Kyuubi were running through the training grounds playing around and cheerful as can be. They were not taking anything seriously, too happy about Hinata's pregnancy and his Ani's upcoming family, which was the reason why the two were not running in straight lines but zigzagging through the training grounds and up in to the trees. Him and Kyuubi, with the permission of Hinata and Gaara, were on their way to tell the Uzumaki-Kazuma's father about their happy news and had left with Haku, who was going to the Hyuuga compound to tell Neji the news, while Gaara and Hinata stayed with Tsunade. They had just dropped Haku off and were headed to the Kazama compound when the burst of energy traveled through Naruto in the excitement that he was going to be an uncle.

Because of this, the two had taken the long way back to get rid of some of their excess energy. With a particular surplus of energy, the blond did a back handspring, landing it perfectly. However, his familiar -after his spectacular performance- nipped him in the side before racing off. The undignified squawk that came out of Naruto's mouth fell on deaf ears before the teen gave chased after the kitsune. Or at least that is what they had thought. But they were wrong. They were not alone.

The sound of clapping drew Naruto's attention away from his joy and back to his surroundings. Turning towards the source of the sound, the moral Tenshi's body went ridged and Kyuubi jumped in front of him. The fox's body lowered to the ground, ready to pounce, while his fur was raised and teeth bared threateningly. The vulpine eyes changed from their golden color to blood red in less than a second and violent red chakra burst to life. As more chakra was expelled, the number the kitsune's tails increased until he finally resembled his namesake. A Kyuubi no Kitsune.

"**_You! _What the _hell_ are you doing ****here**?" Naruto growled out, his own chakra bursting to life around him in a multi-color vortex.

* * *

Hurrying across the rooftops, Sasuke made his way to the Uzumaki household. After the three brothers had escorted Hinata to their grandmother's, the raven had made sure the place was cleaned up before heading home alone. Obito had gone off with Zabuza somewhere -he really wasn't paying attention because he really didn't want to know what those two would be doing- and he had been fine with that. He went to sleep just an hour or so after arriving home and sleep soundly for the first few hours of the night. However, somewhere into the night, Sasuke woke up abruptly and could not go back to sleep. He kept on tossing and turning and there was no chance to get any rest once he was awake, something not feeling right. The raven never figured out what the matter was, and when he gave up trying to sleep in the early morning, he had a sudden urge to go see Naruto.

Following his instincts, Sasuke quickly got fully dressed in his ANBU uniform, weapons included, and headed out of his house. Never once did he stop for anything to eat, even though his stomach gave protest, he needed to see the blond first and then the uneasiness would subside. Besides, the two of them could go out on a breakfast date together and then they could spend the day together. The thought sent a smirk to the raven's face and his speed increased, if not for the prospective of seeing Naruto, then at the simple thought of spending the whole day with him. In no time at all he arrived in the house Tsunade now owned and shared with her mismatched family, though most of the time the Uzumakis could never be found there. They were usually on missions or out about in the village. Knocking on the door, Sasuke waited for one of the Uzumakis to answer.

A flash of yellow revealed itself when the door opened and the Uchiha gave a small smile. "Ohayou Tsunade-hime," Sasuke greeted the blonde, however, it was not the blond he was looking for. Still, he was polite, remembering this was his Soul Mate's adopted grandmother and the woman that was the proclaimed Princess of Konohagakure.

"Good morning Sasuke," the Sannin greeted back unnaturally delighted. The smile on her face seemed to glimmering in the rising sun. "What are you doing here so early in the morning?"

"I came to see if Naruto wanted to have breakfast with me," the Uchiha explained, hearing movement in the back of the house. It almost sound as if someone had just hit the floor after being knocked out followed by rushing footsteps and the raven would have been alarmed if it was not for Hinata appearing at the door. She looked a little fluster, but other than that she had the same glow to her Tsunade had. Her glow held more of a radiant luminous light. Seeing Sasuke, the Hyuuga gave a slight nod of acknowledgement before turning to the blonde her smile fading for the first time and an irritated frown on her face.

"Tsunade-baachan, Gaara-kun fainted again," the young woman stated, perking the raven's interest. Uzumaki Sabaku Gaara had faint? Again? What could have caused the Ichibi no Shukaku's vessel to faint? Twice even? Wasn't he the emotionless Uzumaki?

Sighing, Tsunade rubbed the bridge of her nose. "What for this time?"

"I told him we were having twins," the Hyuuga Heiress confessed, smiling sheepishly. The statement just caused the Slug Sannin to roll her eyes at her oldest grandson's behavior. It was not like the world was coming to an end and here he was fainting at every turn. First he fainted when he learned Hinata was carrying, now it was for the simple news he was an expecting father of twins. That was good news, not the kind one would faint over.

"You're pregnant?" Sasuke asked slightly surprise. When Hinata had fainted the night before, being pregnant was the last thing on his mind of the cause. But seeing her now, blushing slightly with her radiant glow that was never there before, the Uchiha could tell something had definitely changed in her. He was happy for her, though he just hoped the babies would take after their mother and not their father. Having another Gaara was not something he was looking for, especially if there were going to be two of them. "Congratulations Hinata. I'm happy for you."

"Thank you Sasuke, that means a lot to me," the woman stated her smile back and bright as ever. "So what are you doing her so early in the morning?"

"He came looking for Naruto, but I was just about to tell him that he's at his father's house," Tsunade explained.

"Aw, yes, Naru-chan went to tell his father I was pregnant last night, he said he would meet up with me later today to have a celebratory lunch, just the two of us," Hinata added on. "Though, I don't think I'll be able to make. Gaara-kun is not taking the pregnancy as well as I would have hoped. Could you please tell him I won't be able to make it when you see him for me?"

Nodding his head positively, Sasuke promised to tell the blond Hinata could not make it to lunch and continued to talk to the two women for a little bit longer before departing. His anxiousness to see Naruto growing over time and the need to find his Soul Mate seemed to increase with every passing second. He had decided to go through the training fields to the Kazama household and the moment he entered the clearing Sasuke felt as if his world would end. A ringing noise entered his ears and his mouth went dry. The air seemed to thin and dizziness washed over him from the lack of air.

The Uchiha would have fainted too if it was not for the fact his cousin came up behind him and placed as hand on his shoulder sending him back to the real world. All the weird symptoms suddenly disappeared and the air seemed to return to normal like nothing had ever happened. Whatever had just happed was over with, but the remnants were still floating about.

"Sasuke, you know training in this early in the morning is not ideal, especially after you had been drinking last night," Obito stated from behind the young ANBU captain. Never once did he realize something was wrong with the younger man, he did not feel the clamminess of Sasuke's skin under his uniform and he did not see the paler than normal skin color.

"I wasn't going to go to train, I'm heading over to Arashi-sensei's house to see Naruto," Sasuke explained, turning towards the older Uchiha, his skin his regular color once again. He still didn't feel completely fine, but he looked normal. The uneasiness he had been feeling all night long seemed to have intensified ever since he entered the clearing and it just seemed to grow and grow with each passing second.

"I was just there with Zabuza, Naruto wasn't there," Obito replied thoughtfully. "Arashi-" The rest of what his cousin was saying faded out as Sasuke's senses faded from the world and into another world. The clairvoyance of his Sakashima Sharingan had kicked in and instead of seeing a future event he saw what had already been.

* * *

"**_You! _What the _hell_ are you doing ****here**?" Naruto growled out, his own chakra bursting to life around him in a multi-color vortex.

"Naruto-kun, you don't seem happy to see me," Itachi said, stepping out of the shadows, his voice almost seemed to hold a tone of hurtfulness. Almost. The man was wearing what looked to be a grey snakeskin cloak that covered most of his body. Underneath the cloak, black pants tucked into shinobi sandals and a dark purple fishnet shirt with armor covering his chest rested unseen. "And here I came all this way to retrieve you myself. You must feel honored, you're the only that I've ever had to come after myself."

"All the honor I want is the honor that comes along with your death _Destroyer_!" the Lord of Foxes spat out, discreetly pulling out one of his kunai. He was thankfully that he changed in to his regular clothing when he was at his grandmother's house, because if Itachi had caught him any earlier, he won't have had any weapons on him. His orange scarf helped hide his moments well since the wind was blowing causing his hands to be concealed by the piece of fabric.

"And you got away once because I underestimated you," the man continued on as if he had never been interrupted. "But that's not going to happen this time around!"

A burst of pure evil chakra, black in color with purple tints, went flying towards Naruto and Kyuubi. The grass that the chakra touch as it speeded towards the two wilted away at the darkness of the energy. However, it just passed over its intended targets, the motion behind the attack only causing Kyuubi's fur to flatten and Naruto's hair to whip about him. The pure chakra from the Pure One keeping him and his familiar safe from the dark nature of the attack, making to pass by them as if they were not even present. The attack just moved onwards, before it hit an invisible wall as an electrifying sound vibrated through the clearing and the evil chakra exploded a few seconds later, cause a shockwave to go ricochet off the invisible walls now surrounding the training grounds.

Seeing the blond's looking about him in wonder and acknowledging that something was not right, the Destroyer chuckled darkly. "You like? It's an ancient barrier that was created by a holy man, thought to be lost from the world. But before my god's untimely demise, he taught it to me. It's impenetrable, _nothing _-not sound, not chakra, not even summonings- gets in and nothing can get out," the Uchiha stated, watching as the Pure One, the child that he had been chasing after for so long, realized that he was not going to be able to escape like last time. Nor was he going to be able to call for any help. "But my favorite part about this barrier is that it and the contents inside can't be sensed. Meaning no one will know I'm here, not matter how much chakra I use."

Naruto held himself back from swearing, since he never used any curse words because of the Inaris -bless their departed souls- teachings. This was not good. He was trapped, inside an ancient barrier with the Destroyer. No one could intervene with their fight, hell no one even knew the man was there. He could not even summon any of the Tenshi. It was just him and Kyuubi.

"Because of you, I've spend all my life in hiding and I've never been able to settled down in one place for long. Because of you, I've never gotten to know my real father. Because of you, Kyuubi attacked Konohagakure the night I was born. Because of you, my life has been hell and for once, I'm taking the reins to my life back. I'm in control and I will defeat you," the blond stated, falling into a fighting stance. "Now let's cut the talk and fight."

"Agreed," Itachi confirmed, but unlike Naruto, he made no movements. He only moved when a barrage of kunai came at him by jumping out of the way. He landed three feet behind his original position, but by then, the blades had already passed by and were now headed toward the trees that surrounded the training grounds. Nonetheless, before the kunai could bury themselves into the bark of a tree, the hit the barrier, falling to the ground useless. All of which went unnoticed by those trapped by the invisible walls.

The second he felt any sort of ground underneath him, the Destroyer throw his own weapons at the Pure One. His favorite silver shurikens with purple tints to them. He sent a small hand full towards his prey followed closely by a Kage Shuriken Bunshin no Jutsu, multiplying the few he threw into hundreds. Itachi had to smirk when the blond sprang to the side and did a cartwheel to avoid the throwing-stars, he would have been disappointed with anything less from his prey. His smirked widen when the Lord of Foxes landed, crouching low to the grounds; so when the unexpected explosion formed by Itachi's tainted shuriken hit the barrier, he was not thrown off his feet. His weapons always did damage, even if they did not hit the target.

The Destroyer was too busy watching Naruto that he forgot all about Kyuubi, which the fox was not going to take lightly. The kitsune pounced on the unsuspecting man from behind, his claws extended and tails thrashing behind him. The razor sharp claws easily pierced the clothing of the raven haired man and sank into his skin, ripping him apart. Kyuubi's fangs did not lay ideal either, for he plunged the jagged teeth into the junction of the man's neck. The blood flow out of the inflicted wounds and into the fox's mouth was thick and held a toxic taste to it. The red liquid held the flavor of snake.

Suddenly, the body that Kyuubi held within his grasps gave out an inhuman hiss before going through a mutation. A deadly vapor came off of the body, forcing the kitsune to release his hold and retreat backwards. Once he was far enough away, the fox familiar watched as Itachi's body mutated and changed into the Hachibi no Orochi, only a much smaller version. The snake was about the same size as he was, but he could tell that all of Hachibi's power was still there. The lesser tailed demon gave a hiss and Kyuubi answered it with a growl of his own before and epic battle between the two most powerful Bijū of fangs and claws.

Off to the side, Naruto's eyes were darting every which way when he realized that the Itachi they had originally encountered was not the real Uchiha or he had swapped himself using the Kawarimi. The fact still remained, the real Destroyer was nowhere in sight and that was not good.

"Goukakyu no Jutsu," the whisper was barely picked up by the Lord of Foxes' sensitive ears and it was only caught because of his enhanced senses. Whatever the case was, it was all the warning the blond got before he turned to see a large fireball headed in his direction and without a second though, he deactivated the gravity seal on his being. To most shinobi, it may have looked like he used the Shunshin to get away without the annoying puff of smoke when in actuality; it was Naruto's speed alone that he was able to dodge the Katon. Itachi was not most shinobi. "Katon: H

ōsenka no Jutsu."

Again, the Pure One dodged all the fireballs sent his way with his speed, never minding the sound of the fire hitting the barrier walls with an electrifying zap for all the attacks he managed to avoid. He was really an Uchiha that was for sure. The fire techniques he continually used and the electric nature of the invisible walls foretold of his fire and lightning affinities. And if Naruto would have given the man half of a chance to catch his eyes, the sharingan was sure to be blazing to life, ready to capture him in a genjutsu. Thankfully, he had avoided all eye contacted as soon as he turned to see the man before him.

__

"Fight fire with fire,"

the soft caressing of the wind whispered into Naruto's ear, causing the blond to smirk slightly. Itachi was wrong, his barrier was not as impenetrable as he thought it was, after all, the wind got through it.

Fight fire with fire, huh? Well, this was going to be fun. He may know some fire jutsu, but his affinity lied within the wind, so his abilities would not be powerful enough on their own. But who said fire was limited to ninjutsu attacks? The Uzumaki taijutsu styles catered to all affinities and used them to best the odds.

"Uzumaki Taijutsu: Burning Fire Style," Naruto all but voiced out. If his lips had not been moving, one would have thought that he had yet to say anything.

As if he was a living ember himself, the blond burst to life with red and orange chakra surrounding him. He flickered this way and then jumped back suddenly before moving off into another direction, just like a flame of a candle, yet there was a difference. Naruto was not a small flame which had to hold onto its wick or would die without it; he was a burning wildfire with fuel to burn. And burn he did.

The chakra enhanced teen had withdrawn one of his kunai and used it to deflect the on coming fireballs by parrying the shurikens hidden inside. Instead of them hitting the walls surrounding them, the flames were thrown to the side, where the throwing stars embedded themselves into the ground. The grass around the fallen stars was obliterated by the heat and the fire did not stop burning until all the chakra in them had dissipated. That still left the shuriken red hot as if they were coals.

Naruto's own kunai was growing warm with heat from all the flames it encountered, but the blond paid it no head. In a flicker of light, he changed form defense to offense as he rushed at the unexpected Uchiha. The blade bit into flesh, cauterizing the wound instantly from the head of the kunai so no blood was spilt. It was only a flesh wound though, for Itachi had managed to gain his bearings in time to avoid any really damage. He was going to have a nice scar on the left side of his torso though. He did not have to see, to feel the Mangekyou Sharingan blazing to life in the Destroyer's eye and boring holes into his body.

That did not stop Naruto though. He continued to fight, but he had to flicker back to defense since Itachi's raged started to boil and sending one Katon attack after another Katon, some of which the teen had never heard of. However, when another opening made was given to him, the Lord of Foxes took it, his kunai diving for the Uchiha's heart. His body low to the ground as he speed across the short distance and his right hand securely holding the blade close to his chest -but facing away from him- so it could not be dislodged while his left hand was held up to counter if needed be.

Getting close enough was the problem and when he shoved his kunai towards the place the bastard's heart would have been if he had any, he was parried by a kunai that matched the shurikens its owner wielded. His blade had missed, but he had not missed his opening. Looking up slightly, since he was crouched down low, blue eyes drew their way up to Itachi's face, where a look of surprise shown through his otherwise emotionless mask. Blood ran down the right side of his face from the five long gashes in his otherwise perfect appearance, Naruto's left hand clawed with raze like fingernails still inside the man's face.

The Destroyer's face snapped down to look towards him and the blond hurried to look away from the aggressively spinning sharingan eyes, but he never got the chance. Itachi forced a wave of pure evil chakra out of his body, and without enough time or warning to pull up his pure chakra to shield him from the attack, the Pure One was sent flying backwards. The dark chakra trying to entry his body, tearing at his skin looking for away, forcing its way into the boy's body. Sensing the invading chakra, Naruto's pure chakra pushed it out like a white blood cell fighting against viruses entering the body. The feeling hurt like hell.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," the Destroyer cried after forming the correct hand seals. An exact copy of Itachi formed behind the blond, wrapping his arms around the teen and immobilizing him. It was something that the Naruto could have gotten away from, given time. He did not have the time though; Itachi was not one to let his advantage slip away. "Bunshin Daibakuha."

If he was any other person, Naruto would have been dead. However, when the smoke cleared from the blast, the blond was miraculously standing, but his clothing was tattered and singed. Where the bunshin had wrapped his arms around the blond, burns decorated the delicate skin. The worse being his back. A hole almost the size of the shirt was gone, burned off along with half of Naruto's back. Part of the Pure One's spine could be seen through the gore and charred muscle protruding from what skin that remained. Those few patches of skin which were covered in third degree burns.

"Kyu-bi," the Lord of Foxes weakly called out to his familiar.

Hearing his master's call, the kitsune scratched at the snake in front of him with a chakra enhanced swipe, throwing the beast to the ground. He did not take the opportunity presented to him at Hachibi's weakened position and turned on his heels, heading towards Naruto's call. His tails swaying behind him as he turned on a dime and caught sight of the blond's state for the first time. Kyuubi almost howled out in anguish at the sight of the wounds scattered across what used to be tan skin.

Kyuubi tried to transform into his larger form, Kyuubi tried to rush to Naruto's aid, Kyuubi tried to protect Naruto, but he could not. He could not transform into his largest form because of the barrier surrounding the training field forced him to stay in his smaller form. He could not rush to Naruto's aid since Hachibi attacked the distracted Bij

ū and held him down, tangling all of the snaky body around the fox to keep him there. He could no protect Naruto because Itachi got to him first, slamming the teen's faltering body against the invisible wall by the neck.

A wretched scream filled the area as Naruto's burnt back came into contact with the barrier and a serge of electricity coursed through his veins. Itachi just watched with sick satisfaction as the Pure One screamed out in agony. A sick and twisted smile forming across his face.

"This is what people get when they defy me," the Destroyer said evenly, shoving the blond further into the wall currently electrocuting him. He was amused when the lightning in the wall intensified as well as the deceased Inaris' Chosen One's howl of pain. But he was not finished yet. Reaching into his snakeskin cloak, Itachi withdrew what looked to be like an old hilt to a sword with two curved-in spikes at one end and channeled chakra through it. A blade of blackish-purple energy came out from in between the two curved spikes and with no compassion; the man shoved the Raijin's blade straight through Naruto's left shoulder. "And this is what you get for daring to defile my face."

The scream which followed was ear piercing. Naruto's eyes widened at the sheer amount of pain coursing through his body. It hurt so much and he could not do a damned thing to stop it. His body was weak, he had been caught unguarded for one attack and that was all it took. That dark energy blast was what did him in, he should have jumped back immediately after striking the Destroyer, but he hadn't. It had been a split second mistake and it cost him too much. He could not think properly and before he knew it, Naruto fell into an unconscious state. His body going limit in the grasps of the Destroyer of the World, much to Itachi's satisfaction.

He had finally caught the Pure One. After years of searching and working to obtain the boy, the Destroyer had finally caught him. The moment he went limp, the Uchiha pulled away from the blond, letting the Raijin projecting out of his body and into the barrier hold him up. The sight of the lifeless figure and the smell of burnt and electrocuted flesh was a drug for Itachi. It was making him high, causing insane thought to run through his head. This world would be his soon and once he finished conquering the human race, he could move on to the world of the gods. And when they were gone, he would become immortal. He would live forever.

"Hachibi," the Destroyer called to his slave expecting the hissing noise of the orochi's answer. It never came and his penitent was wearing thin. "_Hachibi!_" the raven harshly called out to the disobedient pet and again there was no answer. Whirling around to find the blasted Bij

ū, Itachi saw reason for the snake's silence.

Hachibi no Orochi was dead.

Twisted on the ground with Kyuubi no Kitsune's barely breathing body, the corpse of the once great snake lay. Three of its eight heads were gone, severed off with the kitsune's chakra enhanced claws while another head was hanging on to the body by a few scales. Two of the heads were missing jaws and one was blind, missing the red winter-cherries it had for eyes. The last head had a cut from the top of its head down to the jaw of its mouth, showing what brain matter was left. Most of the orochi's tails were intact, if not covered in blood and missing scales, but the worst was Hachibi's body itself. For Kyuubi still had his fangs sunk dead into the snake's body and from there down, three clean-cut openings in the carcass had the intestates and other inner organs falling out on to the blood soaked grass.

Kyuubi, for his part, did not come out of it unharm either. There were multiple wounds covering his body and his right front leg was broken in several places while his two back legs held no feeling, not allowing him to stand. Chunks of his fur was missing in patches and a long cut ran across his muzzle that was bleeding profusely. One of the orochi's fangs stuck out of his side, wedged in the space between his second and third ribs, having been forcefully pulled out of the snake's mouth during the fight with no intentions. The Bij

ū had used up all of his chakra and even while he tried, he could not get up, not for the life of him.

All Kyuubi could do was watch as the Destroyer hissed at Hachibi, complaining that the snake had died before taking his master, his friend, and leaving. He did not care that he had just proven himself the strongest Bij

ū. He did not care that he might have been bleeding to death. All Kyuubi cared about was he had not been able to protect his friend; he was not strong enough to save him. He had failed.

* * *

"-I hoped nothing bad happened to him," Obito finished as the Sakashima Sharingan user came back to the present after watching the horrific fight between his brother and Naruto, the former coming out the victory no matter how much Sasuke wished it wasn't true. However, when the other sharingan user saw the look in his cousin's eyes, he knew immediately something was wrong. He knew from the sudden activation of the Sakashima Sharingan still spinning in his eyes that the teen had saw something. He had some sort of vision and whatever it was; Obito could tell Sasuke was scared. "What? What is it? What did you see? Sasuke, speak to me?"

Coming to his full senses, the younger Uchiha totally ignored what his cousin had been saying and frantically looked around the clearing. The signs of a struggle nowhere in sight, but he knew it was there and if Sasuke hadn't been looking for it, he would have never caught the slight glimmer of a genjutsu sent up around a portion of the training field. He ran towards the disoriented patch of reality and was shocked the moment he cam in contact at the beginning of the illusion. It was a barrier. The same barrier which had Naruto trapped the night before.

It was not going to stop him. With his one of a kind sharingan spinning faster than he thought possible, Sasuke called upon the one technique Kakashi had given him and threw his chidori covered hand at the barrier. It didn't budge, not even when the Amaterasu joined the lightning on the invisible surface. There was just a deafening crackling sound but it wouldn't give. He poured more and more of his chakra into the two attacks, willing it to break. The current in the electrifying wall changed, but it wasn't because of Sasuke's attacks.

Looking to the side, the younger Uchiha saw his cousin with both his hands placed flat against the wall burning from the current passing through the wall. However, what shocked the raven was how Obito was pulling the lightning from the wall into his body and back out into the ground by his feet, grounding the barrier and slowly weakening it. The process was working quickly as far as Sasuke could tell and he could also tell the process was excoriating painful, but the goggle wearing shinobi was not about to give up. Not wanting Obito to suffer any longer than he had to, another Amaterasu-chidori combined attack was thrown at the wall.

A shattering sound echoed throughout the clearing as a wave of demonic chakra pushed both Uchihas back as it came rushing out of the contained area. The two shinobi flipped in midair, and landed on the ground prepared for anything. The genjutsu around the area had fallen the moment the barrier was gone and the two could see a battle had taken place between very powerful sources. There were chard trees and upturned earth across an acre of land. Tinted purple silver weapons shown with an evil aura in the rising sun's light and dried blood could be seen splattered around some places and pooled in others. A carcass of what looked to be a snake lay not too far off from the Uchiha cousins, but the demonic chakra had not come from the dead demon.

The demonic chakra came from the enraged Kyuubi not Kitsune who was towering about the humans present -but shorter than the trees surrounding the training field- with all nine of his tails crashing everywhere behind him. Chakra was rolling off of the demon in waves and pouring out of wounds where blood should have been. Yet with each passing second, more and more of the wounds seemed to be closing up and disappearing as if they had never been there before. Nonetheless, what had captivated the Uchihas' attention was the fact that in front of them, with burning bloody red eyes, was a demonic looking fox -not the golden eyed nine tailed fox Naruto had ridden years ago while fighting the Destroyer- the same demonic fox which had attacked Konohagakure the day Naruto had been born.

Seeing that it was free from his imprisonment, the demon looked around and his eye immediately landed on the two crouching shinobi who looked as if they were ready to attack. His mind only coming up with one thing to do since he was acting on primal instincts, the fiend snarled and launched himself at the two. Teeth were bared ready to tear the Uchihas apart. The humans avoided the attack, but he kept after them.

Dodging another demonic chakra enhanced claw, Obito jumped out of the way wonder what was going on with the fox. He knew the kitsune before him was Kyuubi, but the way he was acting was nothing like the friendly lovable creature he had come to trust. The fiend was more like the monster that attack the Leaf when his sensei had lost his son for the first time. Obito did know the two were on in the same, yet, when the Kyuubi no Kitsune had first attack he was under the influence of another. He was being controlled. Did that mean the fox was being controlled again? Was that why Kyuubi was all demonic looking and insane? And where was Naruto?

During his cousin's ponders, Sasuke had similar pondering of his own, wondering if his brother was controlling the nine tailed beast. The fox was acting feral and keep on lashing out at him and Obito. However, the kitsune seemed to be targeting him more in particular. Kyuubi seemed to be trying to rip him to bits and pieces as if Sasuke had enraged the demon's deadly fury himself. Yet he had been nothing but kind to the fox, knowing how much Naruto loved the little furball -when Kyuubi was little and not towering over him at the moment- it was his brother who had caused the fox pain. His brother.

His brother who had hurt him. His brother who had hurt Naruto. His brother who had made the fox fail his master. His brother who had the Uchiha blood running through him. His brother who had the scent of the Uchiha. His brother who had pale skin. His brother who had black hair. His brother who had black eyes. His brother who was an Uchiha.

"Shit," Sasuke cursed himself realizing what was going on and not understanding it sooner. Kyuubi, like any cornered wounded animal would do, struck out against those who had him cornered. His demonic features were probably due to the fact he had Hachibi's toxic venom in him and his body was trying to get rid of it, impairing his judgment. With the fox not in his right mind, all he saw was black hair, black eyes, pale skin, and the scent of an Uchiha. Kyuubi was fighting them thinking they were Itachi. The only thing that separated them from the Destroyer in the kitsune's instinct driven mentality was their voices.

Skidding to a halt, Sasuke stood still and waited for Kyuubi to turning his attention towards him. Once the fox had set his sights on the unmoving targeted, a paw covered in blood red chakra came at the unmoving Uchiha. Obito's cry in the background seemed to be drowned out. The ANBU captain seemed sure as dead, but one thing stopped the raging kitsune.

"Kyuubi, stop." And the kitsune did. His paw remained suspended in midair, a fraction of an inch away from actually hitting the teen before him. Kyuubi's eyes seemed to flicker for a moment, before settling on the golden eyes Sasuke was so familiar with and the paw was lowered back to the ground. Slowly the rest of the demonic features melted away into the normal features of the kitsune as he shrank to his smallest size. The Kyuubi, now a one tailed kittling fox, slowly backed away from Sasuke, appealed he had almost killed the Uchiha before turning tail and running away.

However, Sasuke did not have to chase the fox down, for he walked sullenly back and gently set a singed and slightly burnt orange scarf at the ANBU captain's feet. A smaller whimper escaped Kyuubi while he lay next to the cloth with his ears pressed up against his head. The whimpering increased as the raven in front of him bent down and patted him on the head. The action surprised the small kitsune greatly and his whimpering disappeared.

"It's alright Kyuubi. I already know, I already know," the teen said, the tears he had suppressed since he saw the prior night's events threatened to fall. "We'll get him back, don't worry."

"Sasuke," Obito called out hesitantly, unsure of what was going on. One minute the demonic monster was about to kill his cousin and the next a tiny kittling Kyuubi was in his place whimpering softly. The fox had brought something over to the over Uchiha, but he hadn't got a good look at what it was. Nothing was making since, but when Sasuke stood straight up, whatever Kyuubi had brought him clench tightly in his hand, and turned towards him, Obito felt as if the world was coming to an end. And it might be.

For held tightly in his cousin's hands was a battered orange piece of cloth. Naruto's scarf.

* * *

There had been no moon last night. Tsukiyomi was never watching over Konohagakure and the Destroyer took that to his advantage. He had taken it to his advantage and taken Naruto as well. The bastard had taken his Soul Mate and Sasuke could never let that stand. He was going to kill his brother before for what he had done, but now, now he was going to _destroy_ **him**.

A dark forbidding chakra started to leak out of Sasuke, his cousin having to back away from the intensity. The Kyuubi no Kitsune was affected by the chakra as well, but he was not scared of it. Kyuubi was feeding off the chakra, his body absorbing and growing in size while only holding onto his one tail. His fur darkened and lost its red hue, taking of the color of bleak storm clouds. Both eyes turned red, yet they were the red of the sharingan minus the tomoes, and on the kitsune's chest, the crest of the mighty Uchiha appeared.

The Sakashima Sharingan flared to life, further making the ANBU captain ready to kill. "_He_'s dead. I'm going to fucking _slaughter_ him!"

If he had been anyone else, Obito would have taken a step back or turned tail and ran from the sight before him. However, he knew his cousin and he knew how to deal with him. No matter how powerful the teen was, the older Uchiha knew exactly how to handle situation. And without fear, he made his way forwards the epicenter of the dark chakra, a.k.a. Uchiha Sasuke and slapped the raven. The chakra immediately disappeared yet both the Sakashima Sharingan and Kyuubi's new appearance stayed. The former of which was now glaring at him full force.

"Don't you dare look at me like that Sasuke! I don't care what your reasoning is, but this is no way to act!" the usually gentle jounin growled out harshly, his own sharingan flaring to life and glared back just as fiercely. "I know you're upset, but you've got to calm down and think rationally. This is what _he_ wants,_ he_ wants you to go charging in there,_ he_ wants you to be mad, but _Naruto _doesn't! Naruto would never want this from you. For Kami-sama's sake, listen to me!"

The two continued to glare at each other, Obito's breathing harder than his cousin after his yelling rant. However, this just made him look more intimidating. Sasuke wasn't affected. He was not backing down and his glare just hardened. But time was of the essence and he did not have the luxury to stand around debating with the jounin, especially when he was right.

"Fine," the younger Uchiha yielded to Obito. "But what are we going to do?"

"Leave that to me," Obito stated ominously, an Uchiha smirk on his face that reminded Sasuke his cousin was indeed an Uchiha even though he didn't act like one. "Don't think you're the only one that has had contact with our ancestors. After all, the Sakashima Sharingan-" a stifled gasp came from Sasuke as the eyes before him shifted to mirrored his own "- has only been gifted to the few Uchihas in history who have been true to themselves and to the ancestry of the clan. In other words, the trio of deities that loves to meddle in their moral family's affairs."

Hearing footsteps alerted the ANBU captain to the arrival of more than one new arrivals, but the smirk on Obito's face told him it was his doing. "It also helps when the kidnapped person's family is related or Chosen Ones of various gods and goddesses or has a familiar to contact the immortal beings."

Turning his head to the side, Sasuke looked over to see the Demon with his man cleaving sword held lazily in his hand. On his right was the Konohagakure no Hime and her apprentice, while on his left was the Ichibi no Tanuki's vessel and the child of an ice deity. Not a little ways off from the Uzumaki family, the Yondaime Hokage stood with four Spirit Kitsunes at his feet and coming from the opposite end of the training field was the rest of the _Gods of the Night_ along with the last survivor of the Kaguya clan. All of them wore grim looks on their faces, they already knew what was to ahead of them and they knew what was to come.

Turning back to Obito, Sasuke raised one of his eyebrows questioning. "And my team? They have nothing to do with the deities, how did are they here?"

"I have my ways, that's all you need to know. Now come on, we have your Soul Mate to save."

* * *

That was easier said then done. Saving Naruto that is. The Destroyer had almost a full night's head start and an unknown amount of time planning. The man had everything perfectly planned out, down to the very night of the attack during the New Moon when there was no goddess to watch over the night. He probably even had an escape route planned out, so tracking him was nearly impossible. Nearly impossible since there was one known person who had constant contact with the Destroyer. The Shodai Otokage of Otogakure, Orochimaru.

It was time for them to pay the ex-Leaf nin a visit. And pay him back, with interest, all the damage he had caused for Konohagakure.

* * *

Thank you for reviewing. And vote on my poll please and thank you.

**_Shi no Tenshi 902_**


	31. Love You All

It was midday when SEED realized the Hokage was gone and immediately the special taskforce ANBU were alert. Though, instead of making the situation public knowledge, Shikamaru quickly covered up the Yondaime's mysterious disappearance. ROOT did not need to know what was going on and use the situation to their advantage. Pandemonium would break out if that were to happen. Even more so, when it came to his attention the famous ANBU squad _Gods of the Night_ was missing along with the whole Uzumaki clan and one Uchiha Obito. Something was definitely going down and he knew that everything winded down to the 'most complex enigma' he had ever known. The whole situation was just-

"Troublesome," the Nara stated observing the empty Hokage's office, which was supposed to be occupied at the moment. With a sigh, Shikamaru turned around and motioned to Chouji and Ino to stand guard in front of the door. He had to call in a favor with his loving girlfriend, praying to Kami-sama she would not castrate him for losing track of her younger brother and the rest of her extended family. Later, with a lot of dodging questions and a few minor genjutsu, the whole village -and all shinobi including ROOT's spies- thought the Hokage, Obito, and the few members of Uzumaki clan had gone to Sunagakure for an emergency conference. The ANBU team nicknamed Hebi providing protection detail for the traveling group.

The rest of the day, Shikamaru and had the members of SEED discreetly scouting the village in hopes of finding out what had truly happened to the missing shinobi. Kakashi and Rin had reported a scuffle had taken place in training field 32 which did look like much at first. But when silver weapons tinted purple were presented, the Nara knew otherwise. Ino and Chouji had also returned with information that Haku had been seen leaving the Hyuuga compound earlier in the day and Zabuza and Obito had been over at the Hokage's house in the morning. However, Shikamaru finally figured out what was going on when the final piece of the puzzle looked him in the face later that night. Literally.

Hyuuga Hinata had walked right into his very busy office and with the authority only the highest of nobles held, she promptly told everyone else to fuck off and leave if they didn't want to be on the receiving end of her version of the Gentle Fist. In no time at all, the Nara found himself locked in a room with no windows praying for his life as a highly pissed woman towered over his figure. The scary thing about the whole situation was how fast she changed emotions from being pissed to sobbing in his lap. It took the genius with the I.Q. of two hundred a few minutes to realize the Hyuuga before him was pregnant and she knew what had transpired and where the others were.

And he was right, it all boiled down to one Uzumaki-Kazama Naruto. The most complete enigma there ever was.

* * *

Naruto had been taken almost over three days ago. Two of those days were spent traveling in order to reach Otogakure and another day -which Tsunade had to force them all- to rest. Even if they all wanted to run right into the Sound Village, it could not be done. They could not afford mistakes, which was why, on the day they were at rest, they were also scouting the village's security. Running right in would guarantee mistakes and mistakes would guarantee death. And death was _not_ an option.

During the first night hidden outside the village, the Kurai-Kyuubi no Kitsune -who had shrank in size- and the fours Spirit Foxes had infiltrated the Hidden Village unknown to the group of shinobi. When no one could find them, Arashi began to worry they had been found and Orochimaru knew about the miniature invasion heading his way. If this was the case, they were doomed to fail. Thankfully, this was not the case and a few hours later, the black fox had reappeared with a descent size scroll in his maw.

Sasuke had been the one to take the scroll and found the piece of parchment was a full fledge map of the inside of the village. With the map, the shinobi had a better chance of infiltrating Sound without getting caught. Kimimaro and Juugo, the only two who had really been in the village and not one of Orochimaru's labs like Suigetsu resided in -Karin, at one point had been raise in the village but moved to the lab at a young age and her memory wasn't that good-, had pointed out the different paths which were safe and which routes were not advisable to take. The group was so engrossed on studying the map and plotting their invasion they never noticed the Spirit Foxes never returned.

The second night outside of Otogakure, and the third night since Naruto had been last seen, the shinobi of the Leaf entered stealthily entered the Kami-sama forsaken village. They all did not enter from the same point, but broke up into groups and entered through various ill guarded routes. Juugo, Kimimaro, and Suigetsu had taken the northbound entrance through an underground tunnel which had caved in a month prior to Kimimaro's 'death' but it would not stop them. Not with the Kaguya kekkei genkai on their side along with Juugo's and Suigetsu's own special abilities. They won't have a problem getting through the tunnel. Karin and Shizune had taken scaled the side the east wall concealed under illusions, which could have been a problem for any lesser kunoichi. But, they were both med-nins and could cast illusions upon themselves and use chakra at the same time. Not a simple feat and yet they could accomplish the task with no problem.

Since there were no entrances on the south bound side of Otogakure, Tsunade decided to make one with her fist for her and Arashi to use. The Sannin had channeled her chakra just right to break a potion of the wall, yet she used a small enough amount to not arise suspicions since this was a Hidden Village and shinobi were known to use chakra in everyday life. If the security of the village were expected to investigate every time someone used chakra, then they would have been swamped with work. While the others were going under, above, and even through the wall, Gaara and Haku bypassed the structure by teleporting via the Hyoton user's ice mirrors from the outside to one of the training grounds Juugo had said was under guarded. Anywhere else would have raised alarms since the chakra expelled from the mirror's creation would have caused problems. However, teleporting into a training ground would make it look as if it was some Oto nin training.

Obito and Zabuza tried a more risky approach. They walked right in through the gates. No henge or cloaks for disguises. No, the two just ditched any identifying signs -hitai-ates and the Uchiha emblem- and ruffed up their appearance to make it seemed like they were rouge nins, which was not hard for Zabuza but a little more difficult for the Uchiha. However, a little mud in his hair and ditching the jounin vest while cutting holes in the rest of his outfit worked. The guards, with a lot of bullshitting from Zabuza about different torture methods he used during his Demon of the Mist days, had been openly welcomed the two, thinking the Otokage would be pleased they had recruited more talented shinobi for the Sound Village. Though, the guards were not _that_ stupid and they sent one of the guards to take them to talk with head of security. The guard did not know what hit him three blocks into the city.

Sasuke and Kyuubi took an even more dangerous route; they darted through the most heavily guarded gate. They did not get away unseen, but with the Sakashima Sharingan, they did not remember what they had transpired and went back to guarding the gate with no other thoughts. Using the shadows and the darkness to conceal them, Sasuke followed the kurai-kitsune leading through the cobblestone roads and moss covered builds. Unlike Konohagakure, there was no electricity running through the Hidden Village, torches were hung on the side of houses and lanterns were places on main streets to help guide the way in the night's darkness. However, the light given off from the full moon was doing a better job at light the night then the small flames.

It would have been hard for anyone to miss the invading intruders. That is, if anyone had been around. All the streets and alleyways he had taken, Sasuke had notice this disconcerting. The village was vast and yet, he had not run into any Oto nins, save the few guarding the gates, and seen not one villager. Something was going on, he could just fell it in his bones, but what was going on, he did not know.

__

"I don't like this,"

Kyuubi growled, momentary stopping in the middle of the street as his red eyes roamed the street looking for any signs of life, but finding none. Not even a simple incest could be seen. _"I don't like this at all. I can only smell rotting flesh, but no blood. None whatsoever."_

"Something's up," Sasuke agreed with the canine. He did not know what was going on, but he could tell something was definitely not right. Nothing had been right since Naruto had disappeared. Noting at all. Not even Kyuubi had been his usual self. He was not playful nor was he acting like the trickster fox as a kitsune should have acted. He was serious and seemed to have a certain bloodlust aura surrounding him, almost like he was the demonic kitsune that attacked the Konoha but at the same time he wasn't.

"It's because he's feeding off of your emotions."

"Huh?" Sasuke spun around, his hand already on his katana when he realized he was not in reality. Everything looked the same as it was a few seconds ago, save for the blood red moon up in the sky giving the surrounding a red tone. There was also the fact that the village was bathed in blood and in the background, a black fire was slowly demolishing everything in sight. It was the apocalypse. It was a genjutsu. And the Uchiha would have attacked the group behind him, if he had not have grasp what was going on. "What do you mean Kyuubi is feeding off my emotions?"

"The Bijū are from the realm of the Gods and are gods in their own right, demonic gods, but gods all the same. Therefore, in order for any of them to live in the human realm, they have to create a bond with something from this realm -being a certain object, place, or in this case, person- to stay here. If what the Bijū is bond to has been properly cared for, the tailed beast will flourish and grow. If it is not so, it will reflect on the demonic god. In other words Kyuubi no Kitsune feeds off of emotions of Naruto and since he is your Soul Mate, he feeds off of your emotions as well," Amaterasu explained, looking black kitsune over.

"So the sudden change in Kyuubi's appearance is because Naruto's in trouble?" Sasuke asked, eyeing the fox familiar as well.

"Yes and no," Susanoo replied gravely. "The Uchiha crest and the red eyes are because of you. The black fur represents mistreatment of the person he has been bonded to, the darker the color, the more abused the person has been." The deity could have gone on, but they all knew what he was holding back. _Torture_. There was no other explanation for the gradual change darkening of the fox's fur. No longer was it stormy black, but it was starting to look like the darkness of the night.

"And the genjutsu," Sasuke asked, his fist forming into balls as he tried not to think about what his brother was doing to the Pure One. He needed to stay calm and focused at the moment; he needed to save his Soul Mate.

"It's only a genjutsu now, but if the Destroyer has his way, this will be reality soon. Tonight the barriers between the realms, between life and death, moral and immortal, is the weakest," Tsukiyomi explained. "Tonight is the night of a Lunar Eclipse and the only eclipse in the next millennium resulting in the appearance of the Red Moon. The weakest point in the barriers."

_"It is the dawn of a new era, either tranquility or the apocalypse, only time will tell," Kyuubi barked, his eyes glowing slightly with an inner light. One that Naruto's eyes were known to have at times. He was still connected with the Lord of Foxes, even when the blond wasn't by his side._

"Then let's not wait around for the time to come," the Uchiha growled out, sharingan flashing to life. "I'm taking matters into my own hands. This is my life and I'm going to deal with it the way I want."

* * *

With a little work and creative chakra usage, Juugo and Kimimaro had been about to clear the cave-in in the tunnel's passageway while Suigetsu waited for them. Since he had passed through the blockage by turning to water and sliding through the small gaps. Now, the trio was walking doing the dusty pathway that had not been used for years. Or, at least it had not been used to travel anywhere, no; it seemed to be used as a dump ground for Orochimaru's dead experiments. Dried blood lined the tunnels and pieces of human flesh covered the walls like decoration.

"Have I ever mentioned Orochimaru really creeped me out?" Suigetsu asked, holding up a skull and twisted it in his hands to see there were four different faces.

"Only a couple thousand times since we've entered this cave," Kimimaro answered trying to ignore the odd feeling. It did not help that the whole tunnel gave him the creeps, even if the bodies surrounding them looked to be long since dead. The Kaguya could not get over the fact he felt like someone -or something- was watching them. No matter how far they had gone, the feeling of being watch never left, yet never was there any life signs around. He had checked -numerous times- for chakra signatures and found none. Naruto had always told him to trust his instincts and at the moment they were telling him something was wrong. Terribly wrong.

Kimimaro continued to send out slight chakra pulses every now and again, trying to find the slightest sign of life as the trio made their way through the tunnel. Nevertheless, his instincts seemed to be causing him unnecessary worry. Never once did he find anything other than Juugo walking by his side and Suigetsu further ahead of them playing with the four faced skull. Yet that portrayed and even bigger problem in Kimimaro's mind. He had not felt anything other than them, there was no plant life, no animal life, and no human life. Otogakure felt like a ghost town.

"Hey guys," Suigetsu suddenly spoke up from around the corner he had walked down. "I think we've encountered a tiny problem."

"Suigetsu, if it's another caved-in area just say so," Juugo replied.

"No…well, yeah… it's not technically a cave-in per se," the water-user's voice floated into his teammate's ears, and what was odd about that was his voice seemed to be a little off. Turning the corner, Juugo and Kimimaro soon found out why. "I would say more like a blockade," the swordsman finished lamely.

For there were no signs of a cave in, but there was a mass of flesh blocking the path. The blob of skin was bleeding out onto the ground, creating a pool of liquid beneath it. Body parts protruded every which way out of the giant mass and it looked like some of the appendages were trying to crawl away, separate themselves from the rest of the thing. Yet, the worst part of it all was the fact there was no chakra coming from the form in front of them. It wasn't alive.

"Oh Kami-sama," Juugo suddenly gasped staring at a particular potion of the mass while his body went ridged.

"What, what is it?" Kimimaro asked, wondering what got the gently giant so tense. The man did not say anything, he just pointed towards the area which held his interest. Following the other's finger, the Kaguya saw what Juugo saw before him. His reaction was the exact same. "Oh, Kami-sama."

The mass was of flesh was the villagers whom seemed to be on the receiving hand of one of Orochimaru's experiments. But the real question was why the Otokage would waste all of his pawns when there was a war going on? He would need all the manpower if he wanted to win the war and that is exactly what the man wanted. So why? Why did the snake do this?

"And we might have another problem on our hands," Suigetsu groaned, holding up the skull he still had, which was currently latched onto his arm, biting him. "Get it off mee-ee!"

Acting quickly, Kimimaro grabbed onto the bone and tried to remove it, which only lead to the other screaming in pain. It was when the giant man started to grow annoyed that Juugo reached over and wrenched off the skull and proceeded to crush it with his bare hands. The action did not go without consequences though. It seemed that the mass of flesh didn't like the skull being smashed and it was not taking it lightly judging by the way arms shot out of the blob, trying to attack them. The trio of ninjas were still on guard though and managed to avoid the extending hands. The wall wasn't so lucky and was partially absorbed by the flesh.

"Oh, now that is really disconcerting," Suigetsu bemoaned, staring at the hole in the wall which could have been them.

"While, we now know why all the villagers are gone," Kimimaro mumbled to himself, avoiding another appendage, something that was definitely not an arm. Actually, he couldn't tell what it was, but it did take another piece of the wall with it, and was it just him or was the flesh blob growing bigger?

"Less thinky, more dodgy," the swordsman yelled, "and more fighty." Drawing his sword, Suigetsu hack off the protruding flesh coming his way with one clean swing. The severed muscles shriveled up and turned to ash, leaving nothing behind save for bones. "It's time to have some fun."

Two sadistic smiles were his only reply before the cave became a bloody mess. Well, more than it already was.

* * *

Looking around the corner, Karin surveillance the area before signaling to Shizune the path was clear. The two med-nins had yet to come across a living soul since they entered the village and it was started to seem as if they were being set up or there was something really wrong. The placed just gave off a feel of evilness and it was hard to tell what was going on.

"Karin, look at this," Shizune suddenly called out, stopping the younger from heading any further. The woman had probably just given away their location, which unnerved the redhead. If the brunette was willing to signal enemy shinobi to their locate, what had caused her to call out in the first place? It had to be something important.

Walking over to where Shizune was kneeling down and examining the ground, Karin came to look over her shoulder to see a trail of blood leading from the building they stood next to and out into the streets. Following the trail with her eyes, the former Oto nin noticed the trail was joined by many more blood pathways from the surrounding buildings which then disappeared around the corner. The scary notion was the blood was still fresh. It was then that she realized she felt no other chakra signatures save for her own and Shizune. Not a one.

"What happened here?" Karin asked rhetorically, her eyes searching for any sign of what had happened to her ex-village. She may have loathed the villagers and the things they did, but at one point, it was her home, it was where she grew up and she couldn't bear to see the place like this. The village was created from sins, but this was on a whole different level. The sight before her held something much more vile and evil which the seven deadly sins could hold nothing up against.

"A massacre, and a bloody one at that," Shizune stated sadly, holding the object -which caught her attention in the first place- to her side. A baby's rattle. "I don't think we'll have to worry about alarming the villagers. I have a feeling they are all dead," the kindhearted woman growled out, her hold on the rattle tightening to the point her knuckles were turning white.

The two women continued onwards, knowing there was nothing else they could do for the villagers but there was still something they could do for Naruto. He was still alive. He needed their help. And they would be damn sure he did not end up like the villagers. That was a vow Karin and Shizune were willing to place their lives on.

It was a shame though, that neither Shizune nor Karin notice the baby's rattle which the brunette had places so lovingly on the ground start to unfold and refolded itself into an origami crane which followed after the two unaware kunoichi. They were seconds away from a battle which would test how strong their vow really was.

* * *

Dodging another Raiton jutsu, Haku glanced over to see how his brother was faring off against his opponents, but it seemed like he at just as much of a disadvantage as he was. As soon as they had fully emerged from his ice mirrors, Haku and Gaara were attacked. They were on the defensives the moment they arrived and never one were they given the chance to switch to the offensive. Attach after attack were being thrown at the two brothers with everything their opponents. Or was it more accurate to say opponent?

Haku might not have had his full attention analyzing the situation, but he was no amateur. The six beings in front of him were already dead; they were being controlled by an outside source. The same chakra which flowed through their dried up veins, reanimating the corpses, was all the same. No two beings had the same exact chakra signature, save if they were fraternal siblings, and the Uzumaki was quite sure of his observational skills that it was not the case. Even if they all had the same freaky looking eyes, there was no possible way any of them were related. The only problem now was to find exactly where the puppeteer was hiding.

An instant later, Haku found his face an inch from the ground with a body over the top of him and a gapping hole in the structure in front of him. A feral growl came from Gaara as he yanked him to his feet.

****

"Stop thinking and pay attention,"

the Ichibi growled out, taking control of his host's body for a split second. **"The Pure One's in trouble and we don't need to be going around saving your ass as well."**

Shoving the Shukaku possessed Gaara to the side, Haku dived through the ice mirror seconds before the ice was consumed by a wave of lava created by a combination of two Doton and Katon based attacks. Exiting the second mirror, the brunet glared at the tanuki. "What were you saying, Shukaku?" The temperature around them dropping drastically as frost began to form around the Hyoton user's feet and shards of ice appeared in his hands. A second later, the ice shards flew millimeters away from tan skin and embedded themselves' into dead flesh.

A demonic smirk formed on Gaara's lips as the Ichibi no Tanuki spoke through him. **"Nothing, nothing at all Child of Ice. I just think it's time to play with this pain, and show him what true pain really is. **Wouldn't you have to agree, brother?" The last part was sad by Gaara himself, as his eye turned back to their natural green color and his sands swirled around his being.

"I will have to agree with you there, oh brother of mine," Haku answered, the frost around him crawling farther outward which more ice shards began to form. "We'll have to show this pain exactly why the Uzumaki clan doesn't take well to having their family kidnapped. Especially when it is our younger brother."

"Let's play, Pein."

* * *

After burning the brainless guard's body to ash -courtesy of a well place Katon jutsu- Zabuza and Obito casually walked what they assumed was the downtown area of Otogakure, heading straight for the towering building with the kanji for sound printed across the side of the building. The only trouble with trying to blend in was there was no one around to blend in with. It was deserted.

"Have you ever had the feeling your being watched?" Obito asked nonchalantly, his arms behind his head while he gazed up into the night's sky.

Looking at his partner's harden features Zabuza raised one of his eyebrows questioningly. "Is that a trick question? We're shinobi, when do we not feel like there is someone watching us?"

A snort of annoyance left the Uchiha and a glare was sent in the Demon's general direction. "I'm being serious here," Obito answered rather sharply.

"And so am I," Zabuza replied just as sharply. He quickly snapped his jaw shut when another glare was sent his way, only this time the Sakashima Sharingan was activated. And uncomfortable silence followed the two for awhile, but neither of them bothered looking around them. No, they already knew there was no one around. They already knew all the villagers were dead. And both of them knew they were being watched. They knew the person observing their every move was waiting for them up in the dark tower looming over them.

And it did not even bother them in the least. Not when they trekked through the bloody road. Neither when they passed through the threshold of the Otokage's domain. Nor when a barrier was erect around them, trapping them, as the hissing of a snake started.

"It seems you have fallen right into my trap," Orochimaru hissed inhumanly, slithering out of the darkness of the shadows that had been hiding him. No longer did the Snake Sannin hold a human body, but that of a monstrous orochi with long hair. The way the snake's body moved showed that Orochimaru was not just one giant snake, but one made up of many smaller demonic orochi. Yellow eyes were the only reason either of the two shinobi knew for a fact the creature in front of them was actually at one point in time the Snake Sannin, his eyes told them everything they needed to know and more.

"So predicable you Konoha shinobi can be, when one little Leaf falls, countless more follow after. But you know what? All of them die in the end" the snake spoke up finally, breaking the silence which was intimidating him. This was the former Demon of the Mist and Uchiha Obito; those two were anything but the quiet type. Hatake Zabuza was known for unnerving his opponents by playing with their mind, only using his words and turning fear against them. As for the Uchiha, unlike the rest of the proud clan, Obito was known for running straight into hostile situations without thinking and running his mouth off. With the two of them silent, it seemed too surreal. Even as he made his way around the caged shin bi, neither one of them made a move and his mind games were not affected them at all. "You'll never save the Pure Brat."

It was his last ditch effort to get a rise out of the two ninjas, Orochimaru knew that and, unfortunately, so did Obito and Zabuza. Still, it served its purpose and finally broke the silence of his guests.

"We know," Obito said lazily, pulling out his hitai-ate form where he had hidden it and inspecting it for any damage, ignoring the Snake Sannin in front of him. "We've known since we started this journey. We're not here to save Naruto, that's not our concern-"

"-We're here to kill you," Zabuza interrupted the Uchiha, unsealing his sword from the scroll where he had stored it. "As the Chose One of the Shinigami, it is my duty to punish those who have played with the souls that are under the God of Death's protection and you have been messing. It is time you pay the price."

"And since you're working with an Uchiha, the descendant of three deities, and an Uchiha myself, I have a bill that needs to be paid as well."

* * *

Sasuke had been following Kyuubi since they had entered the village, and as of yet, they had yet to run into any trouble. Of coarse, the two seemed to be in the middle class housing district of Otogakure where there really wasn't anything to worry about. But the Uchiha never questioned why the kurai-kitsune had lead him here, he just keep on following his Soul Mate's familiar. However, when the canine scratched at an ordinary one story house's door and trotted inside when the entryway was clear, Sasuke had to wonder what was going through Kyuubi's mind. Nevertheless, he found himself walking inside the house all the same.

Once inside the mundane dwelling, the Uchiha had to search the house until he found the fox in the kitchen, moving a floor rug with his teeth. It just so happened that there was a chair on the end of the rug, making it difficult for Kyuubi to pull it out of the way. Yet, with one forceful tug, the chair toppled over and the rug was ripped from its position to unveil a large circular seal. He would have analyzed the seal further to try and understand why Kyuubi was so intent on getting to the seal when Sasuke had the sudden urge to hide. With nothing else to go on, the raven disappeared into the shadows, the kitsune quickly following suit.

A few minutes ticked by; nothing happened. The room was silent and still, the chair was on the floor and the rug torn out of place, the signs someone had been in the house. Yet no one came in to see that there had been intruders.

Another shift and shuffle. The shadows on the other side of the room detached themselves from the wall before morphing into two different beings, both of which were on guard and looking around the room warily. They noticed the upturned chair and the rug in disarray, but their eyes were elsewhere. The seal.

"It is a storage seal," Sasuke spoke, coming up behind the two who were studying the rusty color lines on the floor. Neither jumped at the sudden appearance of the Uchiha or Kyuubi who was standing on the other side of the seal, sitting, waiting for anyone to make a move. The tension in the room rising some, but no one made any indications they were going to attack. "Well, as far as I can tell anyways. Found anything?"

"There seems to be some type of barrier around the village, it's making it impossible for me to sense any chakra signatures. Other than that, I'm not sure what the barrier is for or what it does," Tsunade stated looking Sasuke right in the eyes, before her eyes looked towards the blond to her side and then towards the kitsune across from her. The tension in the room died down, the signal had been give, both sides had passed the test, none of them were enemies in henge. "Also, other than the guards keeping watch at their posts, there is no one alive that we can find. Anything on your end?"

Shaking his head negatively, the Uchiha looked back over at the seal on the floor. "Other than this storage seal Kyuubi lead me too, no."

"It's not a storage seal," Arashi suddenly spoke, crouching down next to the beginning of the rusty lines. He ran his left hand across the lines lightly, before rubbing his fingers together. The conclusion he came up with did not seem to be to his liking, judging by the way his eyes narrowed and he looked pissed off. "It's a transportation seal drawn with blood," the Yonadaime spoke darkly, before turning his attention towards Kyuubi. "You said Kyuubi lead you here, right?"

The Uchiha nodded his head, but when he realized the blond was not looking his way, he was forced to speak out loud. "Yeah."

"Just as I thought," the man growled out, if he had sounded angry before, he sounded murderous now. "The blood used to make this seal was Naruto's, assuming from the way Kyuubi lead you all the way here."

The sharingan flared to life in Sasuke eyes and his hands balled into fists a drop of his blood falling to the floor to mingle with the dried blood on the floor. "Where does this transportations seal lead?" the raven asked, keeping his voice unusually even for the amount of angry which was intertwined with his aura.

"There is no telling," Arashi answered, his eye scanning the seal for an indication to where the seal could lead but coming up empty. "I can say the seal is very elaborate and like none I have ever seen before, a high caliber seals master had to create this. As far as I can tell, it could be somewhere in this village, or it could be some half way across the continent for all the seal can tell me."

"Yes there is," Tsunade stated, catching the other's attention and before either could question her, she stepped onto the seal made out of her grandson's blood, Kyuubi by her side in an instant. "We'll just have to try it out."

With a pulse of her chakra that was forced into the seal, the Slug Sannin and the kurai-kitsune were gone. A second was taken for what had just transpired to sink in and another for the two men to follow the agitated kunoichi. Their own chakra enveloped them one second and in the next second, they stumbled out of the transportation seal. Arashi having to catching himself from falling from the force propelling him out of the seal. The first thing he notice when he gained his balance through him off balance again, simply because Reimei and Dei crashed into him.

"Reimei, Dei, there you are, I was wondering where you guys went," Arashi thought out loud, observed the two white vixens. However, he saw the worry they held and their combined yelps and barks didn't make much sense. Nonetheless, he got the gist of it and looked around where he had been transported. It was a room made of cobblestones which held no windows or doors. The only way into the room was through the seal they had just entered it seemed. There were also black fires giving off light around the room, which Arashi knew was underground by the dank and stuffy room.

But what had Tsunade frozen in her spot, what held Sasuke's undivided attention, what had Kyuubi growling, was straight across from them. Strung up from chakra ropes on display, a limb Pure One hung, a sword protruding through his chest. Yuban and Yuuyami were right below the blond's dangling feet trying to guard the wounded Lord of Foxes. The Uzumaki's clothing was torn, ripped, and burnt in places, but the sight of burnt flesh and the signs of electrocution on Naruto's body were what really set Arashi's temper sky high.

"I see you've all taken interest in my new ceiling decoration," a voice echoed off the walls. The origin of the voice would have been hard to find, had it not been for the fact that the Destroyer dropped the genjutsu which hid the throne like chair with the Uchiha clan emblem on the back he sat in him, uncovering himself. Though, the scabbed over claw marks on his cheek were a new addition to his faucal features, the rest of the evil man looked the same. "I myself find it to be a little tacky. I feel it has to go. After his purpose is done that is." A thoughtful expression cross his face which soon became sinister. "After all these years of waiting, I will finally gain my immortality. All thanks to this Pure One here. The first of his kind for more than a century and the first male Pure One every. But none of that will matter much anymore, the Pure One shall sacrifice his life for my immortality and you will all bare witness."

"And what makes you think we will stand around doing nothing?" Arashi growled throwing a handful of three pronged kunai at Itachi and used Hiraishin no Jutsu. In a yellow flash, the Yondaime was in front of the man who had dared to harm his son, a kunai in his hand ready to slash the younger man. The Destroyer made no attempt to move, not one. He never made any contact with the younger man though; a blast of chakra pushed him back. A blast of demonic chakra which he should not, could not possible be his own.

The blast sent Arashi flying back into the wall, burning the flesh on his arms where the blond trying to block the incoming chakra attacks. The attack did not faze him though; the man did not seem to notice he had been burned. All he cared about was killing the boy before him for hurting his son. Moreover, he was not the only one.

While Arashi had distracted Itachi, Sasuke had used the Shunshin no Jutsu to appear behind his older brother had charged him from behind with his katana. However, when the younger Uchiha slashed down with his sword, only a few strains of pitch black hair fell to the floor and Sasuke was forced to move out of the way as a Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu was sent his way. Propelling himself away from the fireball with a burst of chakra in his feet, the young raven flew up into the air and notice a second later that his brother was planning for such a move. The smirk on his face giving it all away as he went through a short sequence of hand seals which the younger brother copied with his sharingan.

Neither brother bothered to call out the name of the jutsu, both let the water based attack hurl towards the other. The two water canons were evenly matched in power and cancelled on another out. The backlash threw Sasuke back into the wall while Itachi stood his ground by using his chakra to stick to the ground. His undoing when Arashi slammed into him, the Destroyer couldn't release the chakra in his feet in time to avoid the Hokage's attack. The well placed punch did some serious damage to older Uchiha's left shoulder if it did not dislocate the appendage from its socket.

His left arm hung down at his side, useless, but the Destroyer did not have enough time to worry. He was forced on the defensive as the two enraged Konohagakure shinobi attack him from both sides. It took another burst of demonic chakra to get the Leaf ninjas at a good distance away from him. But Arashi was not going to fall for the same trick twice and Sasuke knew better after witnessing what he could do with the red chakra, so no harm came to the two. What Itachi was not expecting however, was Kyuubi to bypass the red chakra like it was nothing, for to him, it was. He was a bijū, a tailed beast; demonic chakra could not harm him when he held more potent chakra then what the Destroyer was giving off. So when the kurai-kitsune leaped through the red chakra wall, the Uchiha could only draw his right arm up to protect his face from raze like teeth ready to bite down on his jugular vein. A grunt of pain exited his lips when the fox tore off the skin from his forearm.

While the men of the group battled on with the Destroyer, Tsunade used her chakra to scale the wall and walk up onto the ceiling. Working quickly, but not so fast she wasn't precise, the Sannin started to siphon the chakra out of the ropes and feed it into the surrounding environment. She did not want to directly break the ropes, only Kami-sama knows she could, since she didn't want to alert Itachi to what she was doing. Once she had the rope thin enough, almost where they would break under the stress of Naruto's weight, Tsunade released the chakra holding her to the ceiling and fell, grabbing onto her grandson on the way down while being mindful of the sword impaling the teen.

The ropes holding the blond snapped and the two tumbled to the ground, Tsunade doing a flip in midair so she landed safely on her feet his her precious cargo held close to her chest. The med nin instantly laid Naruto down on the ground while the four spirit foxes huddled around the Lord of Foxes, to examine the damage done, tearing off his shredded shirt to get a better look at the energy blade going through the Lord of Foxes' chest. The wound appeared to have started to heal around the blade with dried blood caking the rest of his torso. It was the new steam of blood coming from the injure that worried the Slug Sannin.

Upon closer examination, Tsunade noticed the energy blade was pulsing sporadically with no pattern. It was obvious the pulsing was what caused the new bleeding, and was hurting the Pure One considering the grimace on his face and the slight whimpering. It was not obvious what was causing the pulsing. The constant burst of chakra and the sounds of fighting in the background making it hard to concentrate. It was when Itachi used the second wall of demonic chakra; a scream of agony wrenched it self from Naruto's throat as the bleeding around the blade flowed faster.

Tsunade figured it out. Turning the best she could while still on her knees, the woman tried to warn the others. Simultaneously, Kyuubi had sunk his teeth into the Destroyer's arm, her warning coming too late. The largest burst of raw chakra Itachi had yet to use was discharged in a white dome, gravely injured the demonic bijū. Another, louder, more agonizing scream of pain echoed throughout the room, as Naruto's chakra flared out, pushing his grandmother and the spirit foxes away from him unwillingly. And for an instant in time, a twine of multicolor chakra could been made out connecting Naruto and Itachi together.

"The Raijin?" Arashi whispered in the state of disbelief, comprehension dawning on the Hokage. A smirk formed on their raven haired enemy's face when he realized the others had finally figured out what he had done. "**_YOU BASTARD! _You used the Nidaime's chakra to steal Naruto's chakra!" the Yondaime roared.**

His only response was a surge of maniacal laughter. "That's not the only thing I'll been steal from him. Haven't you realized it yet? How about you, O' Chosen One of Philyra? No? Pathetic," the Destroyer sneered. "I've been stealing the Pure One's life force as well, so every time you attack me, I take what his and heal myself. See?-" his right where Kyuubi had bitten him was flawless, no marks "-Nothing, no damage, no harm. Well, lest not to me. Only to him, only to the Pure One."

The atmosphere became heavier, almost to the point the Konohagakure shinobi could not breathe. The bastard was healing himself, making them believe they were winning, when in fact he was really toying with them. He had been playing with them all along. But Itachi's next words were what broke them.

"Really, in essence, I'm not the one killing him. You all are."

"No."

Turning around, the Destroyer growled at the other raven. "What was that foolish little brother?"

"No," Sasuke repeated. His Sakashima Sharingan activated and the Destroyer made the mistake of looking the younger Uchiha right in the eyes. "We're not the one's killing him, **_you are! Tsukiyomi!_" **

The two blondes stood frighteningly still, knowing the effects of the Uchiha's ultimate genjutsu. It was the battle of the minds now, only time would tell who would win.

* * *

Unlike the regular Mangekyou Sharingan which could hold a person in their mind for three days at a time, the Sakashima Sharingan could keep a person for a week. And with a week worth of constant fight -which only seemed like seconds for the other occupant of the room- one was sure to learn a lot about their enemy. Nevertheless, during the duration of the genjutsu no one dared to aid Naruto while the Destroyer's mind was elsewhere. The flares of multicolor chakra forcing Arashi and Tsunade to stay where they were to prevent themselves from chakra burns. All they could do was wait and watch, but when Sasuke and Itachi came out of the genjutsu, the reaction that came from the youngest Uchiha was not foreseeable.

"**_You_… you are _not _my brother," the raven spoke, his eyes widening with confusion swimming through the darkness. Itachi never denied the proclamation, but he had never consider himself a part of the Uchiha clan anyways, which is why he had used them to test his skills on and killed the entry clan. Though, the reaction he was get from Sasuke was not what he expected.**

Sasuke tightened his right hand around his katana, the Destroyer never noticing the dragons eagerly dancing across the surface of the blade. _**"Takama-ga-hara no Ryu!"**_

The trio of dragons sprang at the chance to attack the man before him. The Destroyer did not even try to avoid the attack; he figured he could hold his own against the attack. He overestimated himself while underestimate Sasuke's attack, and when he realized this fact, he tried to draw upon the Pure One's power. It did nothing to stop the dragons from High Heaven's Plain; in fact the white chakra seemed to make them grow. However, unlike any other time the Takama-ga-hara no Ryu had been used, there was no physical damage. The dragons went right through Itachi's body and came out the other side.

Itachi fell to knees, his eyes glazed over, but still seeing as he stared at the trio of dragons. Everyone was staring at the trio of dragons that were fighting over which one of them could pull apart the spirit like figure in their grasp. Long messy black hair and sinful black eyes contrasted with pale skin. The figure was very muscular and tall and it definitely was not Itachi.

"You're supposed to be dead," Tsunade whispered out, recognizing the man before her from the stories her grandfather used to tell her, "Uchiha Madara. What the _hell _is going on?" She was confused and reaction was to show anger instead of her confusion.

"He possessed me," Itachi spoke for himself, his voice sounding different, softer and gentle. His eyes were still glazed over slightly, but they held guilt to them which the Destroyer would never wear. "He took over my body and used it as his tool to commit horrendous deeds."

"Has he always possessed you?" Arashi asked, going into his Yondaime mode, as he stared at one of the founders of Konohagakure.

"Iie," the raven spoke shaking his head sluggishly. "In the beginning, he only possessed my body for short periods of time and I would blackout. As time went on, he began to take over my body more and more and I was the none wiser, but when he killed Shisui and gained the Mangekyou Sharingan, I finally became aware of his presence."

"But why didn't you tell anyone?" Tsunade asked, wondering if all he said was true, why everything had happened as it had. Why didn't he try to stop Madara, the true Destroyer in the first place?

"It was too late by then, the stupid boy let me merge with his conscience so much, I was able to lock him in his own mind," Madara spoke for the first time. The three dragons tightening their hold on the spirit form and growling slightly since he dared to speak. "Just like now."

A scream of pain soared across the room as Madara used the Nidaime's chakra to pull forth the Pure One's chakra, combining it with his own purple chakra. The Tamama-ga-hana no Ryu could not stand up to the collective chakras and dissolved, returning back to Sasuke's katana. With nothing to bind him, the apparition fled. Kyuubi tried to latch onto the Destroyer when he speeds by him, yet he went straight through the ghost. Yabun and Yuuyami, being spirit foxes, were actually able to tackle Madara, but the man easily threw the small foxes away. Reimei and Dei crouched down low, fur raised and fangs bared, standing protectively before the Lord of Foxes and they too were no match for the wicked man. He easily bypassed the vixens and merged his spirit form with the Pure One's body.

Another sound came out of the blond teen, nothing like anything they had ever heard of before. The meaning was clear though and that was Naruto was suffering. His body began to convulse and he started seizing as purple chakra surrounded his body trying to shove it way into the teen's body while white, gold, and orangish-red chakra fought against the invading force, trying to keep it from entering its vessel. The ground underneath started to break apart from the stress and an uneven, ragged crater was created, Naruto's body floating above it.

And then nothing.

All the chakra disappeared and Naruto was left defying all logic and floating above the ground. The teen's left hand twitched slightly. Then a groan came from him, not one of pain. Slowly, the body began to lower itself to the ground until he was standing on his feet and his eyes flickered open. Slowly, the blond looked around the room, observing all the damage and everything else before coming to a rest on the Raijin sticking out of his chest. Lethargically, a hand moved up from his side and tightened around the hilt of the blade. With one jerk, he pulled the blade out of his body and watched the blood flow from the opened wound.

"Interesting," Madara's voice escaped Naruto's lips, causing the rest to gasp slightly. They had thought -hoped- that Naruto had won the fight for his own body. "I know the Pure One's in pain, but I can't feel the pain myself. I wonder how long this body will last?"

Whispered. "Get out of his body."

"What was that?" the Destroyer asked, turning his attention away from the Pure One's agony and towards the Uchiha he had been fighting before he had been kicked out of his previous vessel.

"_Get out of Naruto's body!_" Sasuke sneered.

Smirking evilly, an expression which should have never crossed the innocent teen's features, it just looked wrong, Madara laughed at the _boy_ before him. "And who's going to stop me? You? I don't think you will. You'll be killing the Pure One as well and I know you. You wouldn't cause any harm to him, none of you will." The Destroyer shushined right behind Sasuke, Naruto's smaller form barely peeking over the Uchiha's shoulder, a kunai held against the raven's throat. "I -on the other hand- have no really problem killing any of you."

With a slash, blood splattered across the floor followed by a cry of pain and the clattering of metal hitting the ground. Turning his gaze towards the white fox which had its fangs in his vessel's leg -but he was the one feeling the pain- Madara made a grab for the rodent only to have another one attach itself to his wrist followed a third latching onto his opposing wrist and a fourth on his other leg.

"Let go of me!" the Destroyer spat out. The foxes just growled and refused to listen, biting down harder. Madara looked to be about to something about the foxes, when a larger growl caught his attention and he looked up to see Kyuubi standing in front of him. Previous event of what he had done to the kitsune flashed through the evil man's mind, none of them pretty. "You won't hurt me, you'll be hurting your charge as well," Madara denied, but it sounded less confident then before and more like he was trying to convince himself. Kyuubi just flicked his ears back and forth, as if he was listening, before another more threatening growl rumbled in his throat.

"Stop encouraging him! You'll kill us both!" the Destroyer shouted out. Raising a few eyebrows, wondering what the mad man was going on about, thinking he had truly become a madman. It was silent for a few seconds, different expression filtering across the Naruto's faucal features, none of his own.

An arrogant smirk. "No, you wouldn't."

It dawned on the others that Naruto was still within, still fighting. He was not going to give up.

"No, no, no-ahhhh," Madara's screaming was cut off by an explosion of chakra that flooded his veins, seeking for a way out of the small body containing it. The chakra literally burned its way out of the tan skin, prying open smaller wounds and causing making the injuries larger while gaining its freedom. All at once, the chakra came rushing out of the blond's body resulting in an explosion.

* * *

Inspecting the crushed remains of the bone, Suigetsu poked one of the skulls nearest him to make sure there it wasn't going to come back to life anytime soon. Kimimaro and Juugo standing a few feet behind him, panting slightly from the long battle which had taken place with a pile of bleeding flesh.

"Who knew its bones where the thing's weak points?" the swordsman stated, flinching slightly when the skull tipped over and rolled about. However, when no immediate attack came, a sigh of relief left the teen.

"Yeah, who knew?" Juugo answered his teammate sarcastically. Looking over the damaged tunnel which was now supporting a few skylights.

"Good thing Kimimaro was with us then, ne?" Suigetsu asked, standing up and brushing his hands off. He did not miss the way Juugo shot a smile nor the way the Kaguya had a slight blush staining his cheeks. Though, before he could comment, a shockwave of chakra knocked them all off their feet. "What was **that**?" the swordsman yelp, shaken from the amount of power.

"Naruto," Kimimaro breathed out, in shock. "We've got to go, _now!_ The others need us."

* * *

It looked like fireflies with the burning paper drifting through the night air; and in a way, it was beautiful.

"Origami-san no Baka," Karin said, still watching the remaining of their opponent fall to the ground. "Should have given up like I told her too."

A snort. "She would have made things so much easier for us if she just stayed down. She would have still been alive if she listened to us," Shizune agreed with the redhead beside her. "Come on, we're alrea-"

A surge of chakra had both med nins head spinning from the intensity of the wave and if they had not been sitting down, they surly would have fell to the ground.

"Oh, Kami-sama," Karin said. "It's the Apocalypse."

* * *

"Please no, please. I was only following orde-" Thunk.

"Stupid puppeteers, always playing games," Gaara growled, eying the original Pein who now lay dead at his feet, sand crawling out of his mouth before taking the form of a tanuki. The little creature then shook his sand fur and began licking his paw, muttering about always having to do the dirty working. "Wasting our time." A kick. A raised eyebrow.

"What?" Haku asked harshly.

"Didn't expect you to kick him, he's already dead," the redhead explained.

"He made me mad, and you killed him before I got the chance to hurt him. It the best compensation I could come up with," the brunet mumbled. "Unless you want me to kick you instead?"

A bark of laughter. **"I think our aggressive nature has finally rubbed off onto the Child of Ice,"** Shukaku said gleefully, only for his glee to disappear as they all were pushed down by a massive detonation. Pure, holy, demonic, and evil chakra assaulting the one tailed bijū's senses.

**_"The Pure One."_**

A mirror of ice and they was gone.

* * *

Finished pulling out Orochimaru's soul, Zabuza handed the offending piece of trash to the God of Death. Both Obito and Zabuza bowed towards the god before he disappeared, to either dispose of the Snake Sannin's souls or torture it, neither cared. All that matter, was they were rid of the asshole once and for all. But feeling the wave of chakra break the barrier surround them and the entire village, they weren't sure if they had been quick enough to save a life. The Shinigami would be coming for another soul soon and they just hoped it was not one of their own.

* * *

The area was destroyed. No longer were they underground, the earth above them blown away, but there was no moon to light the way. The eclipse had just reached its peek. None cared though.

A small ground started to form, surround a raven haired young man who was cradling the lifeless body of a blond haired teen. It started raining, but there were no clouds in the sky; nonetheless, the tears still rained down.

"You can't leave me," Sasuke cried, holding on tighter to his blond angel. "I won't let you. I'll clip your wings if I have to. I'll make sure you can't leave me." The raven sobbed into the warm chest as it slowly grew colder. Feeling his hair being brushed out of his face, the raven looked up into the other's eyes, fearing what he might find. His heart soared when he saw the uniquely colored blue eyes looking back at him lovingly, but the angel's next words made his heartbreak into a million pieces.

"You have to let me go, you must release me and if I return to you, then I'm truly yours," Naruto whispered, his hand sliding down his beloved's face, memorizing the soft features and how his charcoal eyes shinned with unshed tears. He always remembered those eyes, the color of darkness. Usually people hated the darkness, feared it, but the blond had always been darn towards the darkness. Maybe it was because his Soul Mate's eyes were the color of darkness that he never feared the night. Or maybe, it was because of the darkness he was drawn towards the man before him. Whatever the reason it was, Naruto knew he would miss it. He would miss all of it.

"You're already mine. You're my Soul Mate, my other half," the Uchiha argued back, tightening his hold on the Uzumaki. He was not going to let the other go without a fight and if he let the moral Tenshi go, surely, if he did, he would never see the teen again.

"Then you have nothing to worry about," the Pure One stated, his hand falling to his side. His eyes dimmed as he breathed out and never breathed back in, white chakra began to leak out of the Pure One's moral vessel, soon joined with by divine gold and demonic orange chakras. Never blue. Blue chakra was for morals, for the living, and the vessel was dead. There was no more blue chakra to give.

Dancing together, the three chakras rose above the ground until the demonic orange chakra and the divine gold chakra clashed together. The light given off by the small fusion of yin and yang chakra had the morals looking away from the light, but their eyes were soon drawn towards the creation formed by the merging of two chakras. For there, in front of them, was a phantomlike Naruto. No longer were there any wounds on his body nor were his clothing torn. He looked so surreal, too perfect, angelic with a new set of clothes which was fit for a god, but the sad smile on his lips put everything back into reality.

Unlike other Pure One's, flawless white feathered angel wings never grew from his back. No, the pure chakra circled the translucent figure before molding around his back and becoming almost solid. The white chakra wings were magnificent. Tenshi which had once been his summonings -now his brethren- started to descend, yet all of them stopped and stayed a curtained distance away from them. Almost as if there was a barrier blocking the angel. However, one angel, the very first Pure One and Kamai-sama's Chosen One flew to the side of the translucent Tenshi, her physical body contrasting with the blond's own.

"Are you going to take him away from us, Shina-sama?" Arashi asked, coming to stand by Sasuke's side, the moral body of his son still held tightly in the Uchiha's grasp. "Is he going to become one of Kami-sama's summonings as well?"

"Iie," the oldest and highest angel shook her head negatively. Looking over at Itachi -who was still slightly disoriented from being free from being possessed by Madara for such a long time- Shina smiled at the boy before beginning her tale. "Uchiha Madara never existed. There was only Butsuyoku Madara, a greedy lord who annihilated my lover and my village for our land is gone. Everyone was killed; I only survived by ascending to Tenshi. I avenged my lover. Killing all of the soldiers that took everything from me, but it never mattered that the people who had killed my Koi were dead. I was alone, and without thinking I took to the skies.

"Never once did I think of the lord who had sent the army to my home and during my time as one of Kami-sama's helpers, I never thought about the man, assuming he had died over time. However, a century later, I found myself at the side of another Pure One who had lost everything in the same way I had, but when a pattern started forming, I realized why Kami-sama allowed me to becoming his summoning. Lord Butsuyoku was still alive, he did not want to give up all he possessed when he died, and in his greed, he created away to leave his moral vessel behind and claim another. However, this was not enough for him, he wanted to becoming immortal and I -and the rest of the Tenshi- were there to get rid of the man since Kami-sama could not directly interfere. Our duty was to get rid of the Destroyer.

"And after centauries of cruelty and immoral deeds, the Lord Butsuyoku Madara is finally gone. We can all finally more on," as Shina told her tale, none of the shinobi realized that the rest of the Tenshi and her began to disappear. They were becoming transparent and it was only when they matched the ghostlike Naruto that the humans noticed. It was already too late by then for them to say anything; a smile was the last thing anyone saw of them before the Tenshi disappeared completely. There were no cliché "farewell" or "see you again" there was none of that, they were just gone.

Naruto was the only one that remained. Nonetheless, he gave them all one of his genuine smiles before the God of Death appeared at his side and placed a hand gently onto the Tenshi's shoulder. Then he too disappeared with Shinigami leading him away. His last words echoing throughout the area.

"I love you all."

* * *

I think I just might end it here.

**_Shi no Tenshi 902_**


	32. The Final Dream

Okay, so I have seemed to make my readers think that the chapter was the final chapter to my story, which it wasn't. What I meant when I said I was finished was that I was finished with that chapter, because it became a pain in the neck to write. I was trying to wrap up all the lose ends in my mind, but it just didn't seem to be working for me. Which really sucked. Anyways, read onwards my faithful reader, read!

* * *

White. Everywhere was white. The tiled floors, the ceiling, the walls, hell, even the people wore white clothing. There was just too much damned white. And then their was that smell, the stuff they used sterilize every damn thing with lingered in the air. Covering up the smell of death and disease with its own putrid smell. It reminded me why I hate hospitals with a growing passion. But I had to stay here, I felt obligated to, and besides, they were partly my family too, in a way.

Watching Gaara pace back and forth was also very amusing as well. After he had been kicked out of the operating room by Tsunade, he had yet to stand still. Haku was on the other side of the hallway, Neji's arms wrapped around him in a comforting way while both their eyes keep on drifting towards the doorway. Not far away from the young couple, Obito and Zabuza sat on a pair of chairs, the Uchiha bouncing slightly in his seat, not being able to hold completely still either. Shizune and Rin were assisting Tsunade at the moment, or else they would have been waiting in the corridors with them. Then there was Sasuke and Itachi, both of them leaning against opposite walls, staring into each others eyes, having a silent conversation.

Finally, there was me, Kazama Arashi, the Yondaime Hokage of Konohagakure. Really I don't know why I was here to begin with, I know everyone else is here to see Hinata give birth to the twins she has been carrying for the last nine months, almost ten since they did not seem to want to leave the womb just yet. As for me, I was just here, I heard that the Uzumaki-Sabaku-Hyuugu twins were being born and I found myself using the Hiraishin seal I had hidden in the hospital. I felt like I needed to be here when the twins were born.

"Are we late? Has Hinata had the twins yet?" Sakura asked, waddling town the corridors as fast as her pregnant state would let her, her husband by her side, fretting over her and their unborn daughter. Haku was the one to answer the woman's question, but I had tuned out the world yet again. I barely even notice Iruka and Kakashi's arrival, the teacher panting slightly from running all the way here while apologizing for their late appearance, which happened to be the scarecrow's fault. It seems like Obito is rubbing off on Kakashi.

Every since Naruto died nine months ago, I found myself with the constant company of one or more of the people here today. Losing my son once to death was hard, finding out he was alive and well was another matter, but losing him again, watching him die, I just couldn't bare it. Not again. I think the only reason I am still alive is because they have all keep me ground here. Looking around one more time, I spot Sasuke scowling at his brother, and I know, for some, I have helped keep them ground as well.

Life has become simpler in the last few months. The war has finally been resolved and a rocky peace has settled in, sure there are a few skirmishes which have popped up here and there, but nothing major. Hundreds of ninjas no longer die a day because of a fruitless war, which seemed to be generated by Butsuyoku Madara, but there were still deaths. The world wasn't perfect -it never was nor would it ever been- though it was getting better. However, there were still quite a few headaches along the way, like clearing Itachi's name when everyone had seen him fighting against along side with S-ranked missing nins or explaining the giant chakra wave that everyone felt for miles around the night of _his _death.

Thankfully, with Shikamaru's high IQ, we had come up with a plausible story. One where Orochimaru had been the one responsible for the Uchiha Massacre and Itachi was given the mission to infiltrate Orochimaru's group and go undercover. He had to keep up appearances during the Suna-Oto invasion, but never once during the invasion did he kill a Konoha citizen. As for the wave of chakra, which had become known as Chakra no Tsunami, as far as anyone else was concerned, it was Orochimaru's last failed experiment that had wiped Otogakure clean off the planet, along with the rest of the area surrounding the village for hundreds of miles around.

But life has never been easy, not once in the last nine months. Burying Naruto's body next to my wife was one of the hardest things I every had to do, and then explaining to the grave marker of my wife just why our son had joined her up in heaven was too much for me. As for the funeral, it was supposed to be small. However, word traveled fast about the death of one Uzumaki-Kazama Naruto and people started to pour in from all across the great nations and everywhere else in between. The few people that came from Sand and Wave -Tazuna and his family- were expected, but the shinobi coming in from Tsuki -the Hoshikage and a handful of ninjas- , Yuki -the Daimyo-, Kiri, hell shinobi and villagers alike from Kumo and Iwa came to pay there respects and that was only to name a few. Naruto had touched the lives of many different people on his journey through life and it seemed like more people would miss him then he every realized.

Shortly after Naruto's burial, Kyuubi and the spirit foxes had disappeared. Sasuke had told me that with nothing to bind the bijū to this world, he had been forced to go back to his own realm and I'm assuming the same can be said for my white fox companions of the last couple of years. Without my son here, things just never felt normal.

Hearing cries echo throughout the hallway, I was snapped out of my thoughts to see Rin and Shizune walking out of the delivery room with a bundle of blankets in each of their arms. The bundle in Shizune's arms was pink while Rin carried a blue bundle.

"Everyone, I would like to introduce you to Hoshiko and Noboru, the next generation of the Uzumaki clan," Shizune said proudly, handing Hoshiko over to her father while Rin held Noboru out to her uncle. The meanings of the twin's names not lost on anyone one present. Hoshiko to honor the Uzumaki Hoshi and Noboru, rise or ascend, just like their deceased uncle.

All of them crowed around the two new bundles, exclamation of the twins having their mother's eyes and father's hair reaching my ears, but never once did I take a step closer to look at the new additions to our mismatched family. I wasn't the only one, Sasuke stood back, staring longingly at the two bundles, a mixture of happiness and sorrow in his eyes and I knew. I knew the happiness was directed towards Gaara and Hinata for their wonderful gifts and the sorrow was that Naruto would never see his niece and nephew that he had been so excited over, for I felt it too.

That was all I could take, and with a few select hand seals, I disappeared from the hospital the same way I have arrived -a golden flash which was seen only by Sasuke- reappearing in a secluded area of the forest. It looked like just another patch of the woods, there was only one difference. Two grave markers. One old and smooth around the edges while the other was still glossy with well defined edges.

* * *

Sitting down in front of the two markers, Arashi bowed his head and gave a slight prayer to the gods and goddesses to look over his family until he joined them.

"Hinata had the babies today," Arashi began talking, not bothering to think about what he said and let the words flow out. "She went into labor early in the morning, nearly scaring poor Shukaku to death. Gaara had been on the outskirts of town, delivering a few parcels for SEED when the little bijū came scattering to his side, or so I've heard, before jumping up on Gaara's shoulder and telling him what was going on. He apparently did quite the impersonation of me, running through the village like lightning. Sounds like me when Naruto was born, eh koi?

"Anyways, they had a girl and boy. Hoshiko and Noboru. Apparently they have Gaara's red hair and the Hyuuga eyes, though I didn't get to see them for myself. I just couldn't stay there any longer," the blond haired man stated dejectedly. "I don't think I can do this anymore. It's becoming harder and harder as the days go on, and koi, I'm starting to forget. I'm starting to forget the sound of your voice, the way you walked and the way you smelled when we would just get up in the morning. I'm starting to forget the little things that are keeping me sane without you… without our son.

"Sasuke is in just as bad of shape as I am. He is taking your passing harder than any of the others; Karin seems to think it is because you died in his arms. But I know the truth, it's because his other half is gone, his Soul Mate," a sigh escaped the Yondaime's lips as he ran his fingers through his messier than usual hair. "Itachi tells me he hasn't been sleeping at all and when he does, he wakes himself up scream and refuses to go back asleep afterwards. He hasn't been eating either, and Sakura has become too big to cheek up on him and force him to eat whenever she likes to anymore. Though, I'm sure once she has her baby and gets back on her feet, she'll be back to the Uchiha compound like clockwork. Her daughter will probably pick up the same habits from her mother and bug Sasuke as well," a soft chuckle escaped the man as his own words weaved an image of an identical mother and daughter pair chastising the younger Uchiha. "In the mean time, Tsunade has told me if this keeps up, she'll have to admit him into the hospital under careful watch."

Another sigh came from Arashi before the music of the wilderness at night took over. Gazing up into the twinkling sky above, the lone man breathed in the beauty. "I really don't know what to do anymore. What can I do?" the Yondaime asked, knowing he would never receive an answer.

"Why not try wishing on the stars? Or asking the wind? They always have the answers and are willing to share if you're willing to listen."

"And if I wished for my family back? What then?" Arashi asked.

A soft breeze began to blow, before settling back down. "Then the wind will answer that your wife has always been with you, standing by your side and watching over you. She's always with you."

"And my son?"

"Then the stars will grant your wish." A twig snapped to Arashi's right and the man turn, his hand going for his weapon's pouch as his relaxed nature left him. He stopped in mid motion when he saw four small white foxes with brown eyes prancing around a larger golden eyed red fox with nine tails. And in the middle of the kitsunes, a heavenly being stood. Amaterasu had blessed the figure in front of him with hair the color of the sun and skin bathed in her warmth and love. Not to be out done, Tsukiyomi had bestowed upon the being a kimono made out of her silver rays of light while Susanoo turned some of his storm clouds into an obi. However, what held the Yondaime Hokage memorized were the unique blue eyes. Very much like his own. Too much like his own.

Stepping closer, afraid that if he got too close he would disappear, Arashi reached out to the figure wanting to touch him, by not daring too. When he was in a closer range, the blond man was able to see the exhaustion in the blue eyes that matched his and saw how small he really was. But the smile on the other's face made his heart speed up and before he knew what was happening, the smaller figure had taken a step closer only for his body to give out on him.

"Naruto!" Catching the fallen teen, Arashi held his son in his arms, never wanting to let go. Never again.

"I'm home Otou-sama, I'm home," the boy whispered drifting off into sleep.

"Naruto?" the Hokage question, worry in his voice.

_"He's asleep,"_Dei whimpered, trotting up to the two blonds.

_"Let him sleep."_ Reimei explained, coming to stand next to her sister.

_"He's been trying to find his way back."_

"Back?" Arashi asked. "Back from where? Didn't Shinigami-sama take him to heaven?"

_"Iie,"_Yuuyami barked out_._

_"Since the former God and Goddess of Rice, Foxes, and Fertility made him their Heir before they passed on, when his moral body died he ascended, becoming the next Kitsune no Kami. He took on the duties given to him, but he wasn't happy," _Yabun whimpered.

_"And they all felt his place wasn't with them. It was here, but he was already dead here and couldn't come back. As a God, he has no right to live here. He could visit like other gods and goddesses, but never stay, and he knew by doing that, he would have hurt everyone even more then him dieing. So he sought another way to return and found it."_ Kyuubi growled lowly, catching the Yondaime's curiosity. However, the fox went no further, ears pinned to the back of his head and a small heart wrenching whimper echoed throughout the clearing.

He did not have a clue where the foxes were going with there story, but he had a feeling his son had done something in order for him to come back to them. What he did, he didn't know. There was one way to find out though. Pulling his nerves together, Arashi asked the lingering question to find his answers. "What was that price?"

_"His immortality," _Kyuubi finally spoke, _"No longer is there any holy chakra running through his veins, he gave up the chance of ever being apart of the realm of the gods and goddesses. Not in this life or his next life. He no longer holds the title Kitsune no Kami nor will he ever be the Lord of Foxes again. The blood of the Tenshi was taken from him as well. He's a regular human child now, nothing more, nothing less."_

It took awhile for the information to sink in, but once it did, Arashi looked at his sleeping son in disbelief. Most humans would give up everything to obtain immortality, but Naruto had given up being immortal to be with him, to be with their mismatch family. No one else. No one else. There was only one question left unanswered.

"If he is no longer the Lord of Foxes or the Kitsune no Kami like you say, then why are you all still with him?" the Hokage questioned.

_"I am his familiar, immortal or mortal, I shall be by his side. Not even death shall separate us," _the Kyuubi no Kitsune growled out, his loyalty to Naruto unwavering.

Turning his attention to the group of spirit foxes, Arashi waited for their answer. The four foxes just looked at each other before answering as one._ "He's part of our pack, as are you, we're not leaving anytime soon."

* * *

_

Tsunade looking around the little restaurant, the Sannin looked for her lunch mate and quickly found him flirting with the young new waitress. "Jiraiya, will you ever change?"

"Only never," the old man responded, giving her one of his smile he used when he was the village's prankster before his own student took over the roll. But the effects were still the same and a burst of laughter came from the woman before him. It was nice to hear her laughter, she hadn't laughed much since her youngest grandson had died and he wouldn't deny he was hurt too from the lad's departure. However, he hadn't gotten that close to the boy either, in the short time he had been around before the Oto-Suna invasion and then after his return, but what he had seen of the blond boy, he knew he would miss.

Nodding to the waitress he had been flirting with, Jiraiya signaled the girl to bring them a bottle of warm sake and some appetizers. "So, I heard your oldest grandson just became a father himself, how's it feel to be a great-grandmother?"

"I'll let you know, right after you have a vasectomy," the Slug Sannin replied, pouring each of them some sake once the waitress had delivered the order. A smirk formed when she saw her fellow Sannin paled considerable. "But really the twins are adorable. Noboru is as quiet as a mouse while Hoshiko seems to have a fascination with Shukaku and cries whenever he's not around. The demon acts like he hates it, though Gaara tells me that his inner demon has a soft spot for the girl. But he's not the only one, Gaara won't let anyone outside the family hold either of the infants unless Hinata forces him to yield and Haku and Neji are over there enough that they practically live with them.

"Zabuza comes by at least twice a day and brings Obito at least once who then drags Sasuke along and Itachi follows. Shizune stops by before her shift while Rin stops by after her shift with Iruka and Kakashi when the Academy lets out," Tsunade said with a chuckle, not believing how the birth of two infants had changed the heavy atmosphere which had fallen on them in the last nine, almost ten, months. "And it has only been a week since they were born."

Taking a sip of his sake, Jiraiya look at Tsunade, but he didn't seem to be really seeing her. His mind elsewhere. "With every death, hope is extinguished, forever lost. But with each new birth, a new hope is born as well. The new Uzumakis tykes represent that hope and everyone naturally latch onto them."

Again, the two lapsed in silence, sipping their sake while thinking about the last week. They continued their small talk, drinking sake and snaking on various things for an hour or so. But there was one subject they had been dancing around, none wanting to be the one to bring it up, yet one of them had to.

Downing his sixth cup, Jiraiya found his nerves. "So how has Arashi been doing? Still not coming into work?"

"No, he asked for the week off after the twins' birth, it'll be a week today," Tsunade answered. "But even then, I haven't seen him all week. I'm starting to think that he has taken Naruto's death harder than Sasuke and not the other way around." The woman was going to say more, but the screams coming form outside had both Sannin out onto the streets in a matter of seconds. What they found, was not what they were expecting.

Mass amount of frogs were jumping around throughout the main road, getting into everything, causing pandemonium. In the middle of all the mess, there was a three pronged kunai lodged in the ground and if anyone bothered to take a closer look -though none of the people were even saw the kunai to begin with, their attention focused solely on the frogs- they would have noticed two foxes etched on the two shorter prongs and the kanji for ichi between the two foxes.

"I have a feeling this will be a long day," Jiraiya state, looking around at all the frogs and flinching when one use his head as a lily pad.

* * *

And the Toad Sannin was right, for once. Throughout the day, different pranks were played all over the village, varying in complexity and the size. The one thing that tied them all together was a three pronged kunai with two kitsunes etched into the metal and a number between the two foxes. It was the talk of the village, every prank was different and somehow everyone was affected one way or another. Some people, those with a better sense of humor than others, just simply laughed it off and others were cursing up a storm, which got them in further trouble by the maternal female populations when children were around.

Nonetheless, stories of pranks were whispered out through the village all day long. Some of the bigger pranks seemed to be the villagers' favorites were almost constantly being spoken of, one of which would be how the Hokage Mountain had a genjutsu placed over it, making it look like all the men were women, save for the Yondaime who was sticking his tongue out at the village with a childish gesture. That was the eighteenth prank. Then there was the third-first, the one that had all male ROOT members in the hospital because of the female ROOT members who swore the men had been peeping on them in the bathhouse.

Few thought that the thirty-first prank could be out done, but they were wrong. The seventy-seventh had the council members speaking in high voices and a pained look on their faces all day long when they sat down. No one really knew what had happened to them, when asked; they would become beat red, mumble something about wild animals and quickly limped away.

Hell, even SEED got pranked, the twenty-fifth prank to be exact. However, they wouldn't divulge the information of the prank, but judging by the way a lot of new couples were formed amidst the ranks, it was better left alone. Though, the villagers thought that the best prank of them all was when Jiraiya learned he would never be able to peep into the bathhouses ever again if he wanted to court Tsunade. Sure, he had always had a crush on his female teammate, even to this day, but giving up his peeping ways? Oh, that was harsh.

By mid day, the number of pranks around the village was in the seventies and the villagers and shinobi were all on guard, but they didn't stop them from getting pranks. They were saved when the golden rays of light disappeared across the horizon, when the ninety-ninth prank pulled. One which totally destroyed the Council of Elders' meeting room, which was the tenth prank pulled on the council that day and it was a general consensus that whoever or whomever were playing these pranks sure did not like the elders. Neither did it seem they liked ROOT, since there were just as many pranks pulled on them as well.

But that didn't mean the last prank had been pulled. Everyone was on edge thinking the pranks would start up again at anytime, but they won't, not for them at least. No, the finally prank wasn't from the citizens. It was only for a select few people in the village. And that prank would be the best prank, no questions asked.

* * *

Oh, something was up, there was definitely something up. Konohagakure was being pranked every ten minutes it would seem and the culprit -or culprits- had yet to be identified, let alone be caught despite the many shinobi who were out for the person's -or persons'- blood. What disturbed him even more was the fact that he and the rest of his team had yet to be pranked and from what he was gathering it would seem prankster(s) whole mission was to involve everyone living in Konohagakure.

That simple fact seemed to put him on edge and Neji knew him and his team were bound to be caught in one of the pranks sooner or later. However, as the sunset and no pranks involved him or his team, his suspicions rose. He knew he was going to be involved in a prank, but someone had a special plan for him and his teammates.

* * *

After seeing the effects of the pranksters prank on SEED, Shikamaru decided that the people behind the pranks should be left alone. Even though some people weren't taking the pranks well, the over all atmosphere of the village had lighten considerably. Then there was a fact that the pranksters were making ROOT's life a living hell and the council as well, which put the people behind everything into his good graces.

Besides, it was too troublesome.

* * *

Hinata merrily hummed a sweet song as she walked through the market place which was in a current state of disarrangement. Many of the venders' stales were painted bright neon colors while others had genjutsu placed over them making some look too frightening to enter. However, the young Hyuuga Heiress almost fainted at the sight of one of the higher class shops -which were a bunch of assholes if anyone asked her- that had a genjutsu over it which made the place look like a whorehouse. The shop owner was desperately trying to get any ninja to release the illusion, but none seemed to be willing, or they just couldn't, making all of the customers go elsewhere for their items.

Hinata could have taken the genjutsu down herself, but she decided to let the man suffer. She still remembered how badly her husband and his brothers were treated by the man years back and this was just karma. Besides, she needed to get home quickly to her family; it was almost time for some of their mismatch family to start showing up. Their house was constantly filled with guests at all hours of the day, but she never mind. It kept all of their minds off of the last couple of months without Naruto. Though, she was concerned about Arashi because she hadn't seen him all week and it was disconcerting. He didn't even stop by to see the two new Uzumakis even once.

Hinata's worries did not stop there however. Sasuke was fairing off any better, though he did come by every day like the rest of the mismatch family, but he looked worse off by the day. When asked about it, the Uchiha just said he had been more unease than usually, like there was something tugging on his heart and it was keeping him on edge. He was sleeping even less than before, if that was even possible with the small amount of sleep he had already got. At least when he was at her house, she could force food down his throat and make sure he ate.

But, Hinata was still worried about both the Uchiha and the Yondaime. They were her family and she would do everything she could to help them, but she sadly; she couldn't bring back the dead. No matter how much she missed Naruto herself; there was nothing she could do about it.

* * *

Sasuke had been asleep, his cousin and brother forcing him to sleep while they went to visit Gaara and the others on Tsunade's orders. He didn't know how long he had been slept, but judging from the sounds coming from downstairs, Itachi and Obito were back. What they were doing was another matter, what was with all the noise?

Shaking his head, Sasuke walked down the hall wearing only his drawstring pants, wanting to give the two other Uchihas a piece of his mind. Though, when he arrived in the kitchen he found a meal fit for the whole family spread out on the table. Five kitsunes spread out across the floor staring at the food longingly. Though, he was more interested in the blond making even more food in his kitchen.

"Naruto," Sasuke breathed out, thinking he was dreaming and if that was so, he never wanted to wake up. The blond jumped slightly; dropping the knife he was using to chop the fruit on the counter and twirled around on the balls of his feet.

"Sasuke, you're awake," the blond stuttered out, pouting slightly. "I'm not finished yet, and the others aren't here either. Otou-sama was-eep!"

The blond wasn't able to say anything else, seeing as Sasuke pulled him to his chest and into strong arms. Kissing him to make sure he was real. Once he was sure that this was not a dream, the Uchiha looked over at the glazed over blue eyes and his heart soared when he was greeted with the smile he had been missing for nine months.

"I told you, you had nothing to worry about. I came back, didn't I?" Naruto asked teasingly, which only caused Sasuke to pull him in for another kiss, a light nip at his lips showing his Soul Mate his unhappiness at the blond's disappearance. Never once did he notice the infamous three pronged kunai with two foxes innocently lying on the kitchen table surrounded by wonderful smelling food. An even hundred branded into the metal.

* * *

Okay, so this is the real end. I hope all of you have enjoyed the story, and thank you to all those who have stuck by me with this two year project, I really am greatful. I would like all of you who will review to tell me a few things about the story so I can improve on my writing. First off, I want to know what was your favorite part and what was your least favorite part. What did you find the most funny, the sadest part, and anything else you feel you have to comment on. Though, I do not want a flame -who does?- I will take constructive criticing, though I know my grammer and spell are bad, so you don't need to tell me! I'm working on it.

Thank you to all of you who have read and reviewed.

**_Shi no Tenshi 902_**


End file.
